Abby Lee Miller ‘Almost Died’ After Suffering From Spinal Infection, Says Surgeon

Abby Lee Miller almost passed away after suffering from a spinal infection that left her paralyzed from the neck down.

Dr. Hooman M. Melamed, an orthopedic spine surgeon, told People that he treated the former “Dance Moms” star after she suffered from excruciating neck pain and weakness in her arm.

“Over the next two days, her condition started deteriorating. Not just her pain, but her weakness started getting worse. In the span of 24 hours, which was something that I have not seen, her condition rapidly deteriorated. She was completely paralyzed from the neck down,” Melamed said.

Miller’s blood pressure also went down, so her surgeon decided to keep her in the hospital even though he initially wanted to send her to another facility.

“We did a CT and we saw what appeared to be an infection that had spread from the bottom of her neck all the way to the lower part of her back… which is extremely unusual. If we didn’t do something, she was going to die. Her blood pressure was bottoming out. She was not doing well,” the surgeon explained.

Unfortunately, Melamed has no idea what exactly caused Miller’s major health scare. But the Lifetime reality TV star underwent a multi-level laminectomy on Tuesday.

“There could be a million reasons for this. Normally, you see this in someone who is compromised, if they have diabetes or are a smoker or have heart problems, but that’s not really her. She has a very well controlled diabetes, actually her numbers are in the pre-diabetic range so to see something like that, it is extremely unusual,” Melamed explained.

Since her surgery, Miller is recovering in the ICU. But as of late, it is still unclear whether or not Miller will be able to walk again.

Last week, Dr. Michael Russo, who performed Miller’s gastric sleeve surgery last year, told Entertainment Tonight that the dancer coach’s hypothyroidism may have caused her excruciating back pain.

“Her hypothyroidism got so severe she had an assortment of symptoms. Most dramatic is severe muscle and bone pain in her back, shoulders, arms, and legs,” he said.