10-08-2025
Chad Michael Murray Lost Nearly Half His Blood Due to Health Scare
Originally appeared on E! Online
suffered a near death experience—but it may have landed him in Hollywood.
While thinking back to how he first started acting, the One Tree Hill star remembered that it wasn't an easy journey in the slightest. In fact, he shared that he nearly died in the process.
'I've spent a lot of time in hospitals,' Chad said during an August 8 appearance on the Great Company podcast. 'I was 15 and my intestines had twisted, and I was hospitalized for two and a half months.'
'I had internal bleeding,' he continued. 'I lost 50 percent of my blood. I was on my deathbed.'
And while he wasn't in a state to remember everything that happened at the time, a few key moments stood out to him.
'I was in and out of consciousness, so I have visions,' he explained. 'I just remember seeing my father the weakest I'd ever seen him and a priest at the end of my bed, and they're talking about last rites and all that stuff.'
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But thankfully, the 43-year-old was able to pull through after his nurse gave him a blood transfusion and, as he put it, 'saved my life.'
It turns out, his nurses may have played a part in kickstarting his career as well.
'My other nurse was a model—it's every 15-year-old boy's dream,' Chad quipped before going on to recall the nurse saying to him, ''Oh gosh, you should model.''
'I was like, 'I don't want to model,'' he continued. ''I want to be an actor. I love film and television. I want to give this gift to other people.' And she's like, 'Well, you can segue from modeling into acting. Look, when you get out, I'm hooking you up with this modeling company I know.' And she meant it.'
Soon after, she took him to a modeling convention in Orlando, where he stumbled across an acting competition—and the rest was history.
But beyond his career, the Gilmore Girls alum also remembered leaving the hospital having learned a few very important lessons.
'I started my relationship with God, and my relationship with my father became really close,' he shared. 'My dad, raising five kids on his own, came to the hospital every single day, and he spent countless nights with me when he had four more kids at home.'
For more stars who've shared insight into their own health scares, keep reading…
Nikki Garcia's Breast Implant InjuryLupita Nyong'o's Uterine FibroidsSuki Waterhouse's HerniaBrian Austin Green's Perforated AppendixAdam Devine's Long-Term Injury From Childhood AccidentJason Tartick's Back InjuryMatt Kirschenheiter's Heart AttackTracy Morgan's Medical EmergencyChristy Carlson Romano's Eye InjuryAmy Schumer's Cushing SyndromeCasey Fitzgerald's Neck Injury From Hockey Skate BladeHailey Bieber's Blood ClotJustin Bieber's Ramsay Hunt SyndromeJamie Foxx's Brain Bleed & StrokeEmilia Clarke's Brain AneurysmCori Broadus's StrokeShailene Woodley's Health Battle
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