All the times 'Modern Family' actress Sarah Hyland has needed surgery

Sarah Hyland is well known around the world for her role as Haley Dunphy in one of the best sitcoms of the 21st century: 'Modern Family'.

Throughout 11 seasons and 234 episodes, the New York actress played the eldest Dunphy child and became a TV star.

What not many people know is that, while Sarah Hyland was filming the show, she had to deal with severe health issues related to a kidney dysplasia.

Her illness was so serious that, so far, the actress has had 16 surgeries - including two kidney transplants.

It was Sarah Hyland herself who spoke freely about her health issues on 'Quitter', the podcast hosted by the actress Julie Bowen - Hyland’s fictional mother on 'Modern Family.'

She received her first kidney transplant from her father in 2012.

Everything seemed fine, but four years later, her body rejected the organ and she had to start the process all over again.

As the actress told the magazine 'Self': "When a family member gives you a second chance in life and that fails, you feel very guilty."

Sarah Hyland admitted to 'Self' that she got depressed and thought about ending her life.

Until the second transplant came, the actress, who at the time was 26, had to be treated with dialysis on a regular basis.

Finally, in May 2017, Sarah Hyland's brother Ian donated his kidney to the actress.

Surprisingly, Hyland was not scared for herself but mostly for her brother. As she said on the podcast: "I didn't want to fail my brother as I did my father."

If she'd ended her life, the actress reasoned, "I would avoid going into organ rejection and being on dialysis at all cost. I thought that it would just be easier for everyone else if I wouldn't be here," she explained to her co-star.

It's been years since then and she finally realises that it wasn't her fault. She has talked about it to several people and concludes that "there's nothing to be ashamed of."

Sarah opened up to Bowen in the podcast: "I wasn't ready to talk about it at all. I didn't want to be victimized because I felt there was much more for me in the future."

The second transplant took place in September 2017, but far from being the end, it was the beginning of half a dozen consecutive surgeries.

Besides her kidney dysplasia, the actress suffers from endometriosis. At a later point, doctors discovered that she also had an abdominal hernia which forced her to undergo 6 surgeries in less than 16 months.

As she expressed on the podcast: "I was still hurting from the transplant when I started to feel other pains."

Just imagine that, while all of this was going on, Sarah Hyland was shooting 'Modern Family'. The show aired from 2009 to 2020 - the same period the actress went through these surgeries.

In fact, on 'Quitters,' Sarah Hyland admitted: "There are some episodes where I do not remember filming because I was mostly asleep."

"I was not able to be awake for eight hours at a time, I was always exhausted. I was only up when it was my turn to film."

She usually pretended to be okay. "When you have grown up your entire life having health issues and always being in pain, you have to learn how to have thick skin, put on a show."

Who has been the biggest support of the actress through all of this? Her fiancée, Wells Adams. The couple is happy together, happy in love, and ready to get married.

"We were FaceTiming the entire time I was in the hospital," the actress said in one of her Instagram stories. "He's seen me at my worst and was always there. He's seen all of that and still finds me beautiful."

Sarah Hyland's health, meanwhile, appears to be stable. She did have to spend more time at home during the pandemic than the rest of us. That has been the reality for a lot of people with chronic health conditions.

As she confirmed on the podcast: "I haven't left the house in a very long time right now, but everything is stable as of now." Let's hope it remains that way.