LPBW’s Matt Roloff and Caryn Chandler Recall His ‘Traumatic’ Hospitalization: ‘I Remember Everyone Being Panicked’

Matt Roloff and his fiancée Caryn Chandler are reflecting on his recent “traumatic” health scare.

During Tuesday’s episode of Little People, Big World, the 62-year-old is home recovering after being hospitalized for problems with his esophagus.

“My esophagus has been acting up here and there. It’s been happening for a couple years. What happens is, it seems like it’s sort of closed off at times, not every meal but not really sure what brings it on,” he explained in a confessional. “The esophagus gets mad very quickly and generates ​​phlegm. It just bubbles up like a volcano until it comes out…it’s shocking. It’s very very dramatic.”

Doctors recommended Roloff undergo a routine upper endoscopy to figure out the problem. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, an upper endoscopy is a procedure used to visually examine your upper digestive system using a tiny camera on the end of a long, flexible tube. It’s typically done to diagnose and sometimes treat conditions that affect the upper part of the digestive system.

However, Roloff said the routine procedure didn’t go as planned.

“That was kind of traumatic” Chandler said as Roloff admitted he doesn’t remember much because of the medication. 

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“Well they had told me several hours because you got sedated and they were going to do the test and then I walked downstairs to get coffee and my cell phone rang. They were like, ‘He’s out, you can come back,’” she recalled. “The doctor came in and he said there’s been a complication. We are concerned that we may have perforated his esophagus.”

Roloff added, “I remember everyone being panicked. There was panic in the room.”

Chandler said she got a “weird vibe” from the doctors and asked what happens next. They then performed a test on Roloff in order to determine if they perforated the esophagus wall.

“They did the test and you drank the stuff and as you drank it I could see that it didn’t show a perforation,” she said. “But I could tell the doctor thought that could have happened.” 

Chandler admitted that it was more of an emotional experience than a physical one after realizing Roloff would be okay. Doctors also said Roloff has “a lot of damage from acid reflux” and that he has a normal-sized esophagus rather than the average size for a little person. 

“I feel like I went in all good and came out all bad,” Roloff said as he dealt with a stomachache at home.

Little People, Big World airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.