Perez Hilton 'should be dead.'
The controversial gossip blogger spent three weeks battling , and harrowing photos from his hospital stay show the gaunt and pale 48-year-old hooked up to various tubes and machines.
He believed, a source now exclusively tells the Daily Mail, that it was the end of the line.
'He never thought this would ever be the case, because his health has always been fine, and he never thought he would ever get into this position,' an insider told the Daily Mail.
'But after the last few weeks, he is celebrating today; his birthday [on Monday] is being seen as a moment of change, because he could have been dead.'
In fact, the source added, 'he should be dead. He believed and had many moments with himself thinking that he was going to die.' Instead, 'he now has a second chance, and this is actually what he needed to happen.'
An insider has revealed Perez Hilton believes he was given a second chance after making it through a three-week hospitalization
Hilton shared concerning images revealing his hospitalization last week
'He is looking forward to this upcoming year to make all the changes he needs to do in life, not only for himself, but for his children,' the source added.
Hilton, father to son Mario Armando Lavandeira III and daughters Mia and Mayte Amor, did not initially reveal what had landed him in Las Vegas' Southern Hills Hospital, posting only worrying selfies to Instagram over the weekend.
On Monday, however, the celebrity blogger told his fans that it was his own 'stupidity' that saw him be admitted for 21 days, calling it 'the worst and best thing that's ever happened' to him.
Hilton had the flu. While it would seem like it should have been akin to any other common illness, the star said during a February 26 YouTube livestream that he was 'exceptionally sick' and battling 'the worst flu of my life' with 'nonstop fevers.'
But it wasn't the influenza that apparently nearly killed him.
'Because I have been taking all of this medication without food for a week, I developed an ulcer then a perforation and then Sepsis,' he said. 'People die of Sepsis.'
Indeed, sepsis is life-threatening, and an estimated 350,000 adults in the US who develop it die during their hospitalization or are discharged to hospice, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hilton said he experienced intense stomach pain that left him unable to walk, and he was forced to take an ambulance to the emergency room where he had laparoscopic surgery.
The infection was so serious, in fact, that he said he had fluid in his lungs that prompted yet another procedure. At this point, he had developed a heart issue.
He also said the infection was very serious and he had fluid in his lungs which led to another major procedure. At that point he developed a heart problem, then another infection.
'Because I have been taking all of this medication without food for a week, I developed an ulcer then a perforation and then Sepsis,' Perez told followers
He was forced to take an ambulance to the emergency room where he had laparoscopic surgery
Hilton is pictured with his three children
Since the hospitalization, Perez has found God and now intends on taking his children to church. (Pictured in 2022)
In the clip shared online, Hilton broke down in tears several times as he detailed the many accidents he had after he starting to eat food after weeks on a feeding tube. But the worst part, he said, was a tube placed to remove the infection as well as a Foley catheter.
'That was intense,' he said, adding that he lost 'a lot of weight.' 'Now that I am home, I am not 100 percent.'
In the aftermath of his hospital stint, Hilton has a new lease on life - and a newfound belief in God.
In fact, the blogger, who said he was raised in the Catholic church, said he had a spiritual experience while hospitalized that inspired him to take his children to church and enroll them in a religious school.
'One of the best experiences about this was God presented himself to me,' Hilton said before revealing his diagnosis. 'Then He did something, something that I can only call miraculous, it was real.'
