When Ryan Read, a registered nurse, was watching an episode of HGTV’s Flip or Flop, she noticed a concerning lump on Tarek El Moussa’s neck.
Ryan decided to send an email to the show’s producers so she wouldn’t appear like a crazy fan. In the email Ryan wrote: “This is not a joke. I’m a registered nurse. I’ve been watching Flip or Flop. I noticed that the host Tarek has a large nodule on his thyroid, and he needs to have it checked out.”
Tarek had noticed the lump in his neck before, but his doctors assured him that nothing was wrong. When his Flip or Flop producer forwarded him Ryan’s email, he decided to get a second opinion.
This time, doctors took a biopsy of the lump, and discovered it was cancerous and that it has already spread to his lymph nodes.
“When I woke up, my wife was crying and the first thing I asked was, ‘It’s cancer, isn’t it?’,” Tarek said. “And she said, ‘Yeah.’”
Thankfully the cancer hadn’t spread past his neck, and the 34-year-old HGTV star is now in remission after undergoing radioactive iodine therapy.
Watch the video below to see how this nurse saved a man’s life just by watching TV.
Would you have done what this nurse did if you noticed something alarming while watching TV? Share with us in the comments below.
[Featured image credit:h The Drs]