Whoopi Goldberg Returns To "The View" After Near-Tragic Case Of Pneumonia

The View's leading host Whoopi Goldberg was missing from recent viewings due to a bad case of pneumonia that nearly took her life. "Yes, I came very, very close to leaving the Earth. Good news, I didn't," she said during her recovery. Now over one month since she's been absent, the 63-year-old returned to the show yesterday, March 14th, with a standing ovation from the audience. 

“This is my first foray out,” she told her co-hosts and audience, via People. “I’m not there yet, I know that. The only way I’m going to get better is if I begin. So this is my beginning.”

She added: “I still have a cough and that’s the last thing to go, apparently. Over the next week and a half I will start to be here more often. But I wanted the first foray out to be to come see y’all because I missed y’all.”

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After discussing her hospital happenings and how doctors had to pump a lot of infection out of her lungs, Whoopi got more serious when explaining just how important it is to take care of yourself. 

“This stuff, really for everybody, you think you can push through because you got a little cold. And you think because you healed quick that something crazy can’t happen? Well it could,” she explained. “This is a cautionary tale for all of us. You must really take care of yourself because there’s little tiny stuff out there that will kill you that you never think of.”