Susan Richardson — the sweetheart middle-child on the hit '70s family dramedy "Eight Is Enough" — finds her life once again hanging by a thread!
Just months after her lifesaving feeding tube exploded, the troubled star needs quadruple heart bypass surgery! “It really has me scared to death,” a distraught Susan, 65, told
The National ENQUIRER from her
trailer park home.
“All the other surgeries I’ve endured and my weight loss have taken a terrible toll on my body," she said. "Now I need heart surgery! “It’s just very hard to bear.”
Photo credit: Getty Images/Files
Susan, shown here in her celebrity prime, went to the hospital near her Coatesville, Pa., home on Jan. 3 thinking she simply needed a heart stent repaired or replaced. That’s when doctors rocked her with the grim diagnosis.
Susan had
narrowly escaped death recently when the tube that allowed her to eat failed. She’d been placed on the feeding tube because of a rare disease called cardio- esophageal achalasia, and the petite five-foot-two former actress had withered away to a scary 107 pounds!
Then, on the Fourth of July, the tube literally exploded and severed a vein. “I looked like I was shot,” Susan said. “The area around where my feeding tube was ruptured and I began to bleed uncontrollably.” A rush to the hospital led to lifesaving treatment.
Her life finally took a turn for the better on Oct. 12 when daughter Sarah — shown here with Susan in 1987 — gave birth to Susan's first grandchild, Miles. Still, Susan’s latest health scare has her asking for prayers.
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“Please tell my ENQUIRER fans they mean everything to me!” she said. “Their prayers keep me going!”