Despite the fact that Selena Gomez has fully recovered from a startling kidney transplant operation last year, her closest friend, Grown-ish actress Francia Raisa, claims the singer had a near-death experience as a result of the procedure.

The singer’s battle with lupus necessitated the three-hour operation.

Rasa revealed in an interview with W Magazine how the two of them struggled to heal from the operation.

‘Recovery was hard,’ she recalled. ‘I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to drink anything. Selena did have a complication, too. A few hours after our surgery, I woke up and had a text from her that said, “I’m really scared.”

‘My kidney was very active, and when it turned I broke an artery. They had to take her into emergency surgery and get a vein from her leg and build a new artery to keep my kidney in place. She could have died.’

Selena was already terrified when she learned she needed a new kidney and would most certainly die if she didn’t get one. Francia explains that while her roommate fought the inflammatory illness Lupus, she witnessed her health decline. Sel had arthritis and received a grim diagnosis following a trip to the doctor. “She went to go get tests, and she came home one day and she was serious,” Francia said. “We all have our moments, so I just let her do her thing, I didn’t ask questions.”

“She was asking me about my day and she grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and tried to open it and couldn’t. Then she threw it on the floor, and she fell to the floor and started crying. I was like, ‘What is wrong with you?’ She said, ‘I need a new kidney. I don’t know what I’m going to do, the waitlist is seven to 10 years.’ And it just came out of me, and I said, ‘I’ll get tested.’ I called her assistant behind her back to get the information, and that’s how the process started,” Francia continued.

Francia went on to say that she left it up to Selena to determine when they’d inform the world about their joint surgery: “We didn’t want to tell anybody because recovery was very hard for us, and we went through a depression at the time. We kind of just wanted to be normal and not have that attention on us. I really left it up to her. I’ve never had anything personal come out about me before. I’ve dated very famous people, and no one knows because I’m very private. I was like, ‘Did you have to be famous?'”

In September 2017, Gomez shared the news of her transplant on Instagram. She posted a picture of herself and Rasa on hospital beds. “It was what I needed to do for my overall health. I honestly look forward to sharing with you, soon my journey through these past several months as I have always wanted to do with you,” Gomez said in the caption.

In October, Gomez opened up about her struggle, revealing that one of her kidneys had ‘flipped’ within her body, necessitating a second six-hour operation, compared to a typical two-hour procedure.

On the Today show, she said, ‘There was so much pain there.’

Gomez has been working on season two of 13 Reasons Why and her upcoming album since her transplant.

Rasa said that she won the role of Yara Shadidi’s roommate on Grownish barely two weeks after her operation after applying for the position.

Rasa previously stated, “I am beyond grateful that God would trust me with something that not only saved a life but changed mine in the process.”