Whoopi Goldberg Reveals She Was Hospitalized Again Following Pneumonia Scare — But Is 'Doing Well'

Whoopi Goldberg has appeared on The View since 2007

Whoopi Goldberg returned for Monday’s episode of The View after an illness sent her back to the hospital.

The EGOT winner, 63, had missed nearly a month on the ABC daytime series in February due to pneumonia and sepsis. After three weeks in the hospital, she slowly started appearing again on The View, beginning with a surprise appearance on March 14. But she was absent again for last Thursday’s show, hospitalized once more — this time for a 24-hour bug.

“I’m better. I’m much, much better,” Goldberg said on Monday, revealing the news. “I had a 24-hour bug, which landed me back in the hospital last week, which is why I missed y’all on Thursday.”

“The bug came and went. It’s gone,” she said. “I seem to be doing well. I’m here!”

Goldberg’s illness was first addressed on The View during the Feb. 20 episode, as fans online questioned why she had been missing on the show since Feb. 6.

“She’s not feeling well,” cohost Joy Behar, 76, said during the broadcast. “She’s actually recovering from pneumonia. I saw her last night and she’s very funny still, and we had big laughs. She’s getting there, she’s on the mend.”

Weeks later, Goldberg gave an update on her condition in a video message broadcast on the March 8 episode — telling fans, “I’m not dead” (though she did admit that she “came very close to leaving the earth”).

“Thank you for all of your good wishes, all of the wonderful things that people have been saying,” Goldberg said. “Even people who aren’t huge fans of mine have actually been saying nice things about me.”

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By March 14, Goldberg was finally ready to tell her story, dropping in on Behar, Abby Huntsman, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain at the top of the show in a surprise appearance.

She revealed that she first found out she had pneumonia when she went to the hospital with a 102-degree fever. “The guy said to me, ‘What color is that?’ talking about my face because I was some weird color,” she said.

Goldberg also explained that while treating her double lung inflammation, she was diagnosed with sepsis — a frightening condition caused when the body has an extreme, over-active, life-threatening response to an infection. Sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitals, with at least 250,000 Americans dying every year from it in the United States alone (that’s more than breast cancer, AIDS and strokes combined).

Both conditions put Goldberg close to death, she said — though she kept her sense of humor, joking, “They had to pump a lot of stuff out.”

Jokes aside, her health was a serious problem. “This stuff, really for everybody, you think you can push through because you got a little cold. And you think because you healed quick that something crazy can’t happen? Well it could,” Goldberg said. “This is a cautionary tale for all of us. You must really take care of yourself because there’s little tiny stuff out there that will kill you that you never think of.”

The View airs weekdays (11 a.m. ET) on ABC.

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