"The doctor told Phil, my then husband, that my condition was really bad news. They had found an artery tearing and said I could die. They said they could try to patch it up but it could go horribly wrong. It all turned out okay in the end but it was touch and go"
About this Quote
The key subtext is how fame doesn’t insulate you from the machinery of medicine. Stone is a global celebrity, yet the scene is strikingly unglamorous: doctors, an “artery tearing,” the grim hedge of “they could try.” That conditional phrasing echoes what patients learn fast: outcomes are negotiated with chance, not guaranteed by status or willpower. Even “patch it up” is telling, almost domestic, like mending fabric. It shrinks a life-threatening vascular emergency into a familiar verb, a psychological trick for tolerating terror.
Naming “Phil, my then husband” quietly signals time passing and identity shifting. The crisis becomes a hinge point not just medically but personally; “then” marks distance, survival, and the rearrangement of a life after catastrophe. The final line, “It all turned out okay,” doesn’t romanticize the ordeal. It gestures at the cultural expectation that survivors wrap trauma in a neat bow, while “touch and go” reasserts the truth: the neatness is retrospective, and the danger was real.
Quote Details
| Topic | Health |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Stone, Sharon. (2026, January 15). The doctor told Phil, my then husband, that my condition was really bad news. They had found an artery tearing and said I could die. They said they could try to patch it up but it could go horribly wrong. It all turned out okay in the end but it was touch and go. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-doctor-told-phil-my-then-husband-that-my-157280/
Chicago Style
Stone, Sharon. "The doctor told Phil, my then husband, that my condition was really bad news. They had found an artery tearing and said I could die. They said they could try to patch it up but it could go horribly wrong. It all turned out okay in the end but it was touch and go." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-doctor-told-phil-my-then-husband-that-my-157280/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The doctor told Phil, my then husband, that my condition was really bad news. They had found an artery tearing and said I could die. They said they could try to patch it up but it could go horribly wrong. It all turned out okay in the end but it was touch and go." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-doctor-told-phil-my-then-husband-that-my-157280/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.





