Selena Gomez's mother is speaking out more about her near-fatal health battle this year, as well as the treatment she received at a hospital.
In an interview with People, published Wednesday, Dec. 22, Mandy Teefey, 45, said her double pneumonia, which she first wrote about in November, had been "exacerbated" when she caught COVID-19.
"I got pneumonia in February in New York, and I guess the doctor didn't really clear it up as much as it needed to be," she said, adding that she received IV vitamin therapy, which she thinks helped.
"Then a week before I was going to get my first COVID shot, I got COVID," she said. "I was at home the whole time. When my fever broke, my oxygen went to 69, and I was rushed to the hospital. The first hospital was pretty badgering, like, 'Why didn't you get your shot?' I'm like, 'I literally can't breathe right now. Can we talk about this later? I will explain why.'"
Mandy, whose daughter has been a vocal supporter of COVID-19 vaccines, did not name the first hospital that treated her but said she was later transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She said that there, she was treated with steroids and antibiotics and given breathing exercises.
"They said that had my body not responded as quickly as it did, I had two days [to live]," she said. "They said, 'We don't know how you've been breathing this whole time.' I had, like, half a lung. I made it through COVID and didn't lose my taste or smell or anything, but it beat up my lungs pretty hardcore."
In November, Mandy wrote on Instagram about how people commented on her weight gain after the release of Entrepreneur magazine's December 2021 cover, which featured her, her daughter and businesswoman Daniella Pierson. Mandy said that when she posed for the shoot, she "was out of the hospital for maybe 3 ½ weeks from double pneumonia," meaning both her lungs were infected, and had "gained 60lbs plus inflammation from the infection." She shared a selfie she said was taken after she was told she had "two days to live."
Mandy told People she "almost passed out doing the shoot," adding, "Don't judge how someone looks because you don't know what's underneath that picture."