Sam Vanderpump: Why I’m Fighting For Organ Donation
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to We're Talking. This organ donation week, I sit down with Maiden Chelsea star Sam Vanderpump to discuss the life-changing health battle that led him to become an advocate for organ donation.
Let's talk about this uh health condition that that that that you're facing because When I as a father,
yeah,
as a husband, when I think about what you are going through, I can't fathom it to the point where There was high interest for me to sit down with you because I I r I truly want to understand how you are feeling in this moment with everything you're dealing with. So just to describe what is it That's you're dealing with.
Um Take you from the beginning. I was diagnosed at the age of four with uh a liver disease. Congenital hepatic fibrosis. My mum spotted it because when I was four years of age. I was a very poorly baby actually. I was born eight weeks early. Okay. I had a collapsed lung. I was in an incubator. I died twice.
In the incubator.
I think I yeah, I had a collapsed lung. They put a tube into me. I mean I I like flatlined I think twice. Like goodness. Once or twice. You know, I was very poorly and then a few weeks later, sent out into the world healthy. We thought I was healthy. Um, so they dealt with a very you know, it must have been very hard for my mum, my father, my whole family, my grandmother. Everyone. Um but I was fine, you know, they dealt with it. Me you know, I was fine.
How was Sam first diagnosed with congenital hepatic fibrosis at age four?
Four years of age. My mum looks at me in a swimming pool and she goes Sam Sam's figure doesn't look right and because I'm not I wasn't a f you know, a chubby baby or a chubby child. I had very skinny arms. But I had this Extended belly. But it wasn't It wasn't like there it was there was no fa it was like I was pregnant. Okay. And my mum couldn't get over it in her head, so she took me to the hospital. And she says, I mean obviously I d I don't remember any of this as four. They ran frantically all over the place. 'Cause they did some tests and at first they thought I had cystic fibrosis. Okay. Which is, I believe, fibrosis on the lungs. They did their series of testing, a biopsy skin. I've still got the scar here today, huge scar.
Must have been a big, big of skin they took. Um, a series of testing and they diagnosed me of liver congenital hepatic fibrosis. And they very much at that age said, Okay, Sam's got this liver disease from what we know now His liver function is fine, but one day he may need a liver transplant. So we knew about this from the age of four.
Okay.
Um, but then over the next year and they said, you know, Sam's gotta be careful. Um, can't be punched in the liver.
What early childhood health challenges did Sam face before his liver condition was identified?
Not that I would, you know, not everyone goes and gets punched in the liver, but you've got to be careful. I couldn't do rugby or stuff like that. And I was seen every quite regularly in the hospital at the Royal Free, Great Ormond Street Hospital. But as I got older and my experience that I will tell you is pro I had this conversation with my mum recently, is very different to what her experience. But I'll tell you my experience. So as I've grown up I've known I've had this disease and I But I didn't pay it much attention because I was always told to live my n life normally. So from four to the age of twenty-seven, I would go every three months to the hospital. And that would be spaced out to every six months, to every year.
Every single appointment, they would do blood urine. Your liver functions fantastic. So age of four, I might need a liver transplant at sixteen. We're now twenty-seven. Absolutely fine. We don't need to see you till next year. Oh, nothing's gonna happen at this rate. You kind of start to think, not you're invincible, you don't and you know, but you you think it was it this wasn't gonna ever affect me. Yes. And then Last year I Very weirdly. Never hit been hit by anything. I was I thought I got the flu, had a little bit of an asthma attack. I've always had asthma and I started to get really um couldn't get better. I mean couldn't get better and I had this really bad back pain. So I was seeing the GP, went into A and E a few times, couldn't I had my asthma under control from A and E admissions.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:55
2
How was Sam first diagnosed with congenital hepatic fibrosis at age four?
1:55–3:23
3
What early childhood health challenges did Sam face before his liver condition was identified?
3:23–7:15
4
How did Sam recognize the signs of sepsis and why did it almost cost him his life?
7:15–8:30
5
Why does Sam believe organ donation is critical after his sepsis experience?
8:30–23:03
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson
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