G.E.M. Has a Congenital Heart Condition

By addy May 8, 2020

In an upcoming episode of the Chinese reality show I Want to Live Like This <我要這樣生活>, a slice-of-life series where cameras follow a celebrity around for a day, G.E.M. (鄧紫棋) openly talked about her congenital heart condition while she took the film crew to her routine physical check-up.

When asked what she was most concerned about, G.E.M. answered the liver. Her mother expressed that they should be more concerned about her pancreas, as both of G.E.M.’s grandmother and great grandmother had suffered from pancreatic cancer.

After her physical, G.E.M. completed a cardiovascular check-up, and participated in a cardiac stress test. G.E.M. could barely run three minutes on the treadmill before shouting, “I’m going to die!”

Her doctor said her ECG results were slightly different from normal. G.E.M.’s heart is not receiving enough blood, which could stem from an issue in the heart valves, or the heart muscle itself. An ultrasound is required to check these conditions.

G.E.M. expressed that she wasn’t surprised after hearing those results. She shared that she was actually born with a congenital heart condition. “I was born with an extra blood vessel on the left side of my heart,” she revealed. “But nothing major has ever happened. To be honest, I actually forgot about it.”