'Fox and Friends First' anchor Heather Childers reveals she was suffering from life-threatening spinal injury

For those not familiar with Heather Childers, she is a popular American news anchor and, more specifically, the face of 'Fox and Friends First', an early morning show on Fox News Channel. In the recent past, though, the host of this 4 am show has been a no-show with reports confirming that Childers has been away on an emergency medical leave.

After a brief break, the 49-year-old television host would finally be resuming her role as the Fox programme host on Tuesday, September 4. Ahead of her rejoining the network, however, Childers opened up about her medical emergency in a candid post, explaining the shocking and sudden reason that forced her to focus her attention towards her health.

"I've been away from my job as 4 am to 5 am host on the show since July 13, but I’m very happy to be returning Tuesday – after a shocking medical emergency and surgery to avoid being paralyzed for the rest of my life," Childers wrote, opening up about her close brush with a prospect lifetime paralysis. "Take it from me: ignoring a health problem won’t make it go away. Don't make excuses when you are dealing with real physical symptoms, or wait for a medical emergency before you see a doctor."

Explaining how a sudden shooting pain raised alarm for Childers, the TV personality revealed the exact term for her recent health scare. "I went in to the hospital for an MRI of my brain. Thankfully, I saw an outstanding neurologist – Dr. Ludmilla Bronfin. During my initial exam, she also tested my reflexes and discovered they were overactive – a condition called hyperreflexia, which can be caused by a variety of conditions," she wrote. 

"Dr. Bronfin told me there was nothing wrong with my brain – wonderful news! But the doctor said I had a serious problem with my spine – something called cervical spinal stenosis with myelopathy. In plain English, that means my spinal cord was being dangerously compressed in my neck," shared Childers before explaining the real reason behind the "compression of my spine".

"I needed surgery as soon as possible to keep things from getting any worse, so I wouldn’t eventually become paralyzed because of spinal cord compression," she continued. "Turns out that the compression of my spine began years ago when I was in a car wreck as a 16-year-old, resulting in traumatic injuries to my head and neck. I didn’t know it, but the trauma to my neck had apparently slowly been getting worse and worse over the years. I never even thought about my neck and, as a result, I ignored some very key warning signs."

Thanks to quick response and immediate attention, Childers is now on the road to recovery and, hopefully, it won't be long before she is back to hosting her early morning show on Fox. 

As she writes, "By the time many of you read this – if it’s after 5 am ET Tuesday – I will have wrapped up my return on 'Fox & Friends First'. I look forward to many, many more early mornings with my friends on the show and with our wonderful viewers."

Read her full post here.