A co-host of The View had a terrifying health scare while the cameras were rolling last week.
Sunny Hostin recalled on Friday’s episode of the daytime talk show that she “almost died” while shooting last Wednesday’s episode when she accidentally ate walnuts, and it gave her a severe allergic reaction.
Hostin explained that last Wednesday, Debbie Matenopoulos, a former co-host of The View, visited the show to promote her new cookbook and brought the panelists a spread of her Greek food, which they were all eating on-air.
Hostin said she felt like everything was fine until her co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin, asked Matenopoulos if there were walnuts in the dish they were eating. “And [Debbie] says, ‘Yes,’” Hostin said. “So I panic immediately.”
Hostin said she then decided to write a “death note” on the back of a card to inform Griffin, who typically sits next to her, that she was in danger.
“[The note] basically says, ‘I am allergic to walnuts,’ and [Griffin] responds, ‘Oh, no!’” Hostin said, holding up the note while recalling the incident Friday. “And I’m looking at [executive producer] Brian [Teta], and he’s like, ‘Is everything OK?’ and …no, it’s not.”
Although The View edited out Hostin and Griffin’s exchange during Wednesday’s episode, you can see Hostin calmly grabbing a card, flipping it over and writing something on it after Griffin asked about the walnuts. The show then cuts to a clip of Matenopoulos preparing one of her dishes, and then swiftly wraps the segment. During Friday’s episode, however, The View featured their interaction, with Hostin looking anxious and Griffin responding explosively with alarm.
Hostin went on to praise the way the show’s on-staff medical team jumped in to save the day.
“They are like superheroes,” Hostin said. “Nurse Jan came in with a cape, she had an epipen, she was testing me…”
“It was actually scary, though!” Griffin recalled. “I couldn’t tell if she was having a reaction, I couldn’t read [the card] at first.”
“She was great in the moment,” Hostin said of Griffin. “Because I panicked.”
Co-host Sara Haines then admitted that she had “no idea” Hostin was allergic to walnuts, prompting Hostin to admit that unfortunately she forgets sometimes as well.
She explained that one of her family members often speaks up for her whenever restaurant staff asks the table if anyone has any dietary restrictions.
“So, generally, this doesn’t happen to me,” Hostin said. “This hasn’t happened to me in 10 years.”
Hopefully the experience will prompt Hostin to advocate more for herself, instead of relying so heavily on family members. According to a 2016 study conducted by Cornell University and published in the American Journal of Public Health, only 2.5% of people facing a medical emergency in public received help from strangers. For minorities, the number dwindles to just 1.8%.
There are, however, plenty of easy ways to prepare oneself for a medical emergency, such as learning the Heimlich maneuver, learning CPR and more. But maybe Hostin should just get into the habit of packing an epipen — just in case her family isn’t around.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.