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Miley Cyrus' brother nearly died after surgery

Jul 20, 2012, 10:01 GMT

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus' brother nearly died after a tonsillectomy.

Braison, 18, had his tonsils removed on July 5 and was released from hospital but his horrified mother Tish Cyrus has revealed he started haemorrhaging over a week later and doctors struggled to save him.

She told E! News: 'After five kids I have seen it all. But I had never seen anything like this. It was just crazy.

'They did it in a surgery centre and released him. The doctor said everything went great and sent us home. And then on the seventh day after surgery he had some bleeding. It scared him but it wasn't a lot. I called the doctor and spoke to a nurse. They said it was totally normal, just scabs coming off and there will be some bleeding, and said don't panic. But if there is a steady stream of blood that is not normal.

'Then on day nine he woke himself up because he felt something running down his throat. He sat up and started spewing blood out of his mouth. As soon as he came to me I immediately put him in the car. We live three miles from the hospital, luckily. I got in there and you could see the nurses and doctors in the emergency room were alarmed. They started doing everything they could to get the bleeding stopped. The blood was just pouring out of his mouth. He was choking on his own blood! It was so traumatising. You think a tonsillectomy is no big deal! But it was full-blown haemorrhaging. They took him back into operating room and stitched up the bleeding artery.'

Tish has spoken out to warn other parents of the dangers of the surgery as she believes living so close to the hospital was what saved her son's life.

She said: 'People need to take a tonsilectomy seriously. It can be life threatening. We are lucky we were a few miles from the hospital and I could get him there.

'Really, your tonsils are right near a major artery, and it can be fatal. If I had not gotten Braison to the hospital it terrifies me to think what would have happened.

'He is doing okay. [but] psychologically, it is really tough.'