Entertainment

Why Was 'DWTS' Amy Purdy Hospitalized?

by Lia Beck

Dancing with the Stars is a two hour-long show, so if you tuned in late, that's totally reasonable. Usually, the show is easy to follow — stars dance, that's really all that happens and it's recapped at the end — but Monday night's episode was a bit different. Tuning in late meant you may have noticed one of DWTS' frontrunners was nowhere to be seen. Amy Purdy was hospitalized after injuring herself during Monday's episode leaving fans no doubt wondering what exactly happened.

Purdy, a paralympic snowboarder, injured her back after dancing the rumba with her partner Derek Hough. The dance itself went well with Purdy and Hough earning 36 out of 40 points from the judges. After finishing her dance, Purdy told host Erin Andrews, "Right after judging, I turned my head and my back cracked and it just seized up. Everything's really painful right now. It's hard to breathe."

Purdy was taken to the hospital soon after meaning she missed the group dance with her team, Team Loca. (Ricky Martin was the guest judge for the night so the teams were Team Vida and Team Loca, naturally.) Before leaving Purdy said, "We have our team dance and I feel so bad because I love our dance. We all had so much fun putting it together and we were killing it together." Purdy's teammates Danica McKellar, Candace Cameron-Bure, and Meryl Davis went onto perform the group dance live for the audience while viewers at home and the judges watched a recording of the team's dress rehearsal performance which included Purdy and Hough. Team Loca ended up winning the challenge.

Once at the hospital, Purdy tweeted updates and went forward with an already scheduled question and answer session with her fans. She let followers know that the doctors think she suffered a muscular injury and also tweeted a message to fellow dancer Nene Leakes who was eliminated from the show. Purdy sounds confident that she'll make her return to the dance floor on the next episode.