Spice Opens Up About Near-Death Experience In Dominican Republic
After several months, Queen of Dancehall and Love and Hip-Hop: Atlanta star Spice got candid about the health scare that she experienced in the Dominican Republic following cosmetic surgery late last year.
The 40-year-old entertainer broke her silence during a 90-minute live on Friday morning, explaining that she initially went to the country to correct fibrosis—a condition she had developed in her abdomen after not following the recommended post-cosmetic procedures.
Unbeknownst to her, this was the beginning of what would become a series of surgeries to get her back in good health.
“As you all know, because it’s no secret, I’ve had procedures done before; I did liposuction and I had a tummy tuck done…I was suffering from something called fibrosis and fibrosis is something that you get lumps on your belly. So, because of my past surgeries that I did before, I had something called fibrosis and it’s when you don’t get your lymphatic massages done,” she began while showing a photo of the lumps that were in her belly.
“It started to affect me when it started showing up in my outfits…and so the lumps started to get painful. Suh sometime when unuh see people pon Instagram and because dem can use app fi smooth out, doesn’t mean that everything is OK.”
Spice said she opted for Dominician Republic for some privacy. “I decided to go to DR because I felt like I was more popular in America and because of the same thing that happens when things hit the internet, I was trying to avoid that,” she explained. “So, of course, I go to DR because it’s a Spanish speaking country.”
“I wanted to consult and find out what was really wrong with me why my stomach was looking like that, why I was feeling pain, why I was getting lumps on my stomach. That was what I was going through. When I was in DR, as you know, when you get a breast implant it only has ten year lifespan. I got my implant changed and when I got my implants changed, I was consulting about my stomach and they did a mild procedure ‘cause you know it’s fibrosis so it was a very mild procedure and I was told to stay back for a couple days. I was there on vacation—I was doing fine. My ticket was booked to go back to Jamaica. I was doing well as far as I thought,” she said.
While enjoying her vacation, the Send It Up singer’s friends became concerned when she started vomiting and alerted her surgeon to conduct a checkup. It was at that time that she found out that there was a hernia in her side.
“When they did the procedure to the breast, they had no reason to do scans to the side so he didn’t see that I had a hernia,” she recalled.
Spice then relayed that the surgeon called an ambulance to transfer her to another hospital in the country to conduct an MRI. The results, in her words, showed that her intestines were protruding through the hernia, which resulted in its eruption.
“Thank God I had the hernia because it erupted outside of my muscle wall. So if I didn’t have the hernia which is that space in the muscle, the intestine would’ve erupted inside of me” she said. “When it erupted, it started to poison my body, and it sent me into a sepsis shock and the sepsis is the poisoning that kills a lot of people that’s why I’m just so grateful to be here.”
She further said that the raptured hernia caused a domino effect of ailments within her body.
“The sepsis started attacking my lungs and it started attacking some of the organs in my body. The sepsis literally start to eat my skin…my skin start to deteriorate…it literally start to rotten out my entire stomach,” Spice lamented, showing a graphic image of the wound that was on her belly.
Following that revelation, she said surgeons cut open her chest to perform corrective surgery on her intestines. That was, however, not enough, according to the singer, who was fighting tears while explaining.
When she returned to the United States, medical professionals performed another surgery.
“I did another surgery immediately when I got here. They had tried to staple me up and when I came to America they open me back up; they put me back in surgery because I was infected with the sepsis so bad. They wanted to kinda clean me up so I did another surgery again,” she said.
There was a faint light at the end of the tunnel for the Go Down Deh singer in December, after being hospitalized for two months. She treated her relatives to lavish gifts, but what the world didn’t know is that she was far from recovery.
“After they let me out of the hospital, I was home for Christmas. You saw me wrapping my kids’ Christmas gifts and presents even with that wound open. I was so determined to let them have a good time. So, when you saw me in Christmas, yes, I still did have a scar under my clothes,” Spice admitted.
As for her noticeable weight loss, this was due to an eating restriction for several months.
“I wasn’t eating which is why I see most of you saying I got my face done…I didn’t go to the DR to do a BBL. That was not true. I went into the hospital as 200 pounds and when I came out of the hospital I was 165 pounds. I lost 35 pounds because I wasn’t allowed to eat. They used to feed me through my neck and that’s how I lost weight,” Spice explained.
She said her fourth surgery was due to a condition called cholecystitis which required her gallbladder being removed.
Spice, whose vibrant on-stage routines included jumping off speaker boxes, splits and somersaults onto fans, is gearing up for a series of live performances across Cayman Island, Bermuda, Jamaica, and New York.