Brooke Shields recently went through a terrifying health crisis.
While preparing for her one-woman show, Previously Owned, at The Carlyle in New York City, the 58-year-old shockingly collapsed and had to be rushed by an ambulance to the hospital, where she was admitted into the intensive care unit.
"I was drinking so much water, and I didn’t know I was low in sodium," Shields detailed during a recent interview for Glamour's Woman of the Year 2023 issue, as she'd later learn the excessive amounts of fluids in her system were the cause of her health scare.
"I was waiting for an Uber," she continued. "I get down to the bottom of the steps, and I start evidently looking weird, and [the people I was with] were like, 'Are you OK?'"
Shields proceeded with her plans and made it to L'Artusi in the West Village before things took a turn for the worse.
"I go in, two women come up to me; I don’t know them. Everything starts to go black. Then my hands drop to my side and I go headfirst into the wall," she recalled of the frightening situation.
"I start having a grand mal seizure. It means frothing at the mouth, totally blue, trying to swallow my tongue. The next thing I remember, I’m being loaded into an ambulance. I have oxygen on," Shields continued, noting it was only then that she realized Bradley Cooper was in the emergency vehicle with her, holding her hand.
According to Shields, a sommelier at the elegant Italian eatery attempted to call The Blue Lagoon actress' husband, Chris Henchy, but was only able to get in touch with an assistant, who contacted another assistant, who ended up reaching out to Cooper because he happened to be in the area.
Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!
"And then it was like, I walked in with Jesus," Shields joked about arriving at the hospital with the handsome A Star is Born actor, before more seriously noting that doctors thought her "brain was seizing" at first.
Upon further evaluation, a physician determined the seizure occurred because her sodium levels had been extremely low due to the excessive amounts of water she had been drinking for an extended period of time.
"I flooded my system, and I drowned myself," the Pretty Baby star admitted, "and if you don’t have enough sodium in your blood or urine or your body, you can have a seizure."
Doctors initially believed Shields was purposely cutting back on her sodium intake for superficial reasons, however, the star insisted during the interview that she simply "felt dehydrated" since she was "singing more than I’ve ever sung in my life and doing a show and a podcast."
Fortunately, the Endless Love actress was able to make a full recovery, and has since continued her one-woman show in NYC.
