(CNN) — Jeannie Mai is recovering from emergency surgery after being diagnosed with epiglottitis.
“The Real” co-host underwent an operation after her epiglottis blocked the flow of air into her lungs, and was forced to leave Season 29 of “Dancing with the Stars.”
On Monday’s “DWTS,” host Tyra Banks introduced a video Mai filmed from her hospital room.
“I have some sad news. Jeannie Mai had emergency surgery last night and she’s in recovery. She’s doing well. However, she’s had to withdraw from this competition. And she shared her emotional story from her hospital room. She did that for you. She really wants you to see that, and you’re going to be able to see that a bit later. Now, due to Jeannie dropping out, we will not have a double elimination tonight. But one couple will go home,” Banks said.
Mai told the audience, “I found out that I have a throat abscess, where my tonsils and my throat had gotten so infected that it started permeating to the rest of the areas behind my neck and my ears that I had to get emergency surgery, which is why I’m here now.”
Adding that she was “absolutely devastated that my journey on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ has to end this way,” she said surgery went “great and that she was lucky to have landed in the hospital when she did.
“If you had waited one more day, your throat would have closed up,” she said a doctor told her.
On Monday, Mai had revealed she was hospitalized and forced to leave the show.
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