Former “Who’s the Boss” child star, Danny Pintauro, landed in the hospital after an accident while riding on his scooter on Thanksgiving.
Pintauro, who played Jonathan Bower on the hit sitcom, shared a video slideshow on Instagram, featuring photos of himself from the hospital, explaining he underwent emergency surgery to repair a tear in his stomach. He sustained the injury while riding his scooter on the night of Thanksgiving and the bike lane he was in was “suddenly blocked with cones.”
“I was forced to choose between a van and a pylon,” his post read. “The pylons hurt!! Have a terrible scrape on my arm and I was pretty convinced I had broken my arm. The next morning it was a whole lot better so I didn’t worry as much.”
It wasn’t until the next day, Saturday, Nov. 30, that he began to feel “weird chest pains,” which later spread across his stomach and shoulder muscles, saying the pain was so severe, “I could barely breathe.”
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Pintauro shared that his husband, Wil Tabares, subsequently drove him to the hospital, and after running multiple tests, it was confirmed the accident caused a tear in his stomach lining, which in turn caused “an infection in my bloodstream,” and “air and stomach acid, etc, were escaping into my abdomen.”
Calling it “the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my whole life,” Pintauro shared on Sunday, the discovery led to “emergency surgery last night to repair the tear.”
“The surgery went well and now that it’s fixed, the pain is pretty much gone away, although I’m still very sore,” he said. “They just took the intubation tube out, but I have to leave another tube in my stomach for three days to keep removing the acids so as to not upset the stitches and repair they did. Which also means that I won’t be eating or drinking anything for the next three days.”
Pintauro reflected on the very real possibility that the situation could have ended very differently for him, saying, “If I had waited any longer, I could have died.” He realized how important it is to listen to your body, explaining it “was the one who told me something was absolutely wrong.”
He went on to thank his “wonderful husband” for staying by his side through everything, as well as the doctors and nurses at Memorial Care Miller Hospital, who are taking care of him.
“Unfortunately, it means that and any of the Book Nooks I was working on will have to wait a few more days so I will change the shipping dates to reflect. I hope that’s okay. This is my first major surgery I, first emergency surgery EVER but I kept it together. It was absolutely terrifying.”
He continued: “If anybody might wanna send me flowers, I wouldn’t be opposed. Lol just kidding.I’m stressed, hungry, in pain and exhausted. Light a candle for me, okay?Ohhh! They did an X-ray of my arm and it’s not broken! So there’s one bright side.”
Pintauro starred in “Who’s the Boss,” alongside Tony Danza, Judith Light, Alyssa Milano and Katherine Helmond, for almost 200 episodes spanning eight seasons, from 1984 to 1992.
Following the end of the series, Pintauro mostly stayed out of the spotlight, choosing to move out of California and onto a different career path. He has acted sporadically since his time on the show, mainly in “The Quarantine Bunch” in 2020 and “A Country Christmas Harmony” in 2022.
