Matthew Perry reveals he almost died after his colon burst from opioid use
- Matthew Perry said he had a 2% chance of survival after his colon burst from opioid use at age 49.
- Opioid use can lead to constipation, which can rupture the colon, a gastroenterologist told Insider.
Matthew Perry says he suffered a gastrointestinal perforation due to opioid use four years ago. He describes the experience in his new memoir "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing."
Perry's injury was severe. He was given a "2 percent chance to live" by the doctors attending to him, he said.
"I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that," he said.
Perry said he was in a coma for two weeks and stayed in the hospital for five months. He had to use a colostomy bag for nine months. He shared the news about the perforation with the press at the time, but he did not disclose its cause.
Now the actor, who played Chandler Bing on the NBC megahit "Friends" from 1994 to 2004, is ready to be frank about his struggles with addiction.
"I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again," Perry told People. "I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down."
Perry chose to share in the hopes that others will gain from his story. "The main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people," he said.
Opioids, even when taken appropriately, can lead to constipation
Dr. Eric Goldstein, a New York gastroenterologist, told Insider that opioids — even when used appropriately — can lead to constipation issues that require medical attention. That's because they slow down the colon's muscles and reduce the amount of fluid entering, which "makes for very hard, firm, infrequent bowel movements," he said.
It's important for people to talk to their doctors about a laxative regimen when prescribed opioids, Goldstein said.
But for people who use opioids frequently, without taking laxatives, the constipation issue is exacerbated, Goldstein said. In his memoir, Perry said he was taking up to 55 Vicodin pills a day.
"When people are abusers or heavy users, they become tolerant to the painkilling and psychoactive effect of opioids, but not the constipation," Goldstein said. "So you need more and more to get pain relief or to get high, but the constipation effect continues to increase. Your body never gets used to it."
As a result, "you have this large hard stool damaging the wall of the colon, which can rupture. And that's a surgical and life-threatening emergency" that often requires a colostomy bag, even temporarily, he added.
Goldstein said that Perry's story can help destigmatize bowel issues. "Poop is still the last great taboo," he said. "It's refreshing to hear somebody even mention that they had a colostomy, so I appreciate the candor of him telling this story."