Francia Raisa, who donated one of her kidneys to save Selena Gomez’s life, has revealed that her best friend “could have died” when a complication occurred after the transplant operation.

The 25 year former Disney star underwent the operation in the summer of 2017 after battling with the autoimmune condition lupus, a disease that attacks the body’s health tissues and organs and which left her in need of a new kidney.

Discussing her post-operation recovery in W magazine this week, 29 year old actress Raisa said: “I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to drink anything.”

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“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’,” she continued, revealing that Gomez was in serious danger after the operation. “My kidney was very active, and when she turned, she 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.”

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“It's harder as the donor, because we are losing something our body didn't need to lose, so trying to recover from that and she's gaining something her body needed. So she's up and at it immediately and I had a hard time.”

Raisa, a star of ABC’s new sitcom ‘Grown-ish’, also said that Gomez had feelings of guilt after accepting such an incredible gesture from her that saved her life.

“She felt bad about even having me do that because we are just friends, I am not her family or anything. Well, I am now. She has my blood. She felt bad,” she revealed.

“We just wanted our families around and it was cool because now I have a big family. I lost my grandparents when I was younger… her grandparents are my grandparents now and so I have this extension of a family and it's been really amazing.”

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