In February 2024, Shay Mooney, one half of Grammy-winning country-pop duo Dan + Shay, surprised his sister with a complete home renovation. And the gesture wasn’t simply a wedding present for Gabriella Mooney. It was a celebration of her survival after she went through a near-death experience a year earlier. Now, the country singer is opening up about the terrifying ordeal in a new episode of Hulu’s IMPACT x Nightline.
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Shay Mooney’s Sister Nearly Died
In a snippet of her interview with ABC News’ Ashan Singh posted to social media, Gabby Mooney explained that she came down with a splitting headache on Valentine’s Day 2023 as she drove to Arkansas for a family visit.
The “Pray For You” singer recalled a headache “so pounding that I could barely see the road.”
“But I remember thinking, ‘I’m just gonna keep driving,’” she said. “‘You’re gonna feel so much better in your own bed.’ I just wanted to make it home.”
While Gabby did make it home, her mother woke up a few hours later to the singer experiencing seizures. Ambulances weren’t running due to an impending tornado, so her parents hired a private ambulance company to rush her to the emergency room.
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In the ambulance, Gabby Mooney continued having multiple seizures. Medical professionals tried to intubate her, but she flatlined. And then something practically indescribable happened.
“When I was quote-unquote dead, I just knew that it was just like Jesus’ hand was, like, going, like this,” she said, turning her palm downward, “and my spirit was rising. And it was just like, ‘Not yet.’ And I felt that of knowing that it was not my time. It was just like this communication between me and the Father, but also, it felt the most peaceful, incredible feeling I had ever felt in my life. I didn’t want to come back.”
After undergoing emergency brain surgery, Gabby experienced some facial paralysis on her right side. She recalled her brother, Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney, at her bedside when she woke up.
“When I woke up, the first thing I remember is Shay was at the base of my bed, and he’s rubbing my foot and he goes, ‘Hey, Sissy,’” she recalled in a 2023 interview with People. “And I knew it was bad from that moment. Little brothers are not that sweet.”
Featured image by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Stand Up To Cancer
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