The switch from love to marriage after a medically-induced coma! The real-life story of Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani put into the film ‘The Big Sick’!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In Career , Health

Emily V. Gordon-the name associated with the film ‘The Big Sick’ has put her real-life story into this film.
This film was released in the first month of last year and was directed by Michael Showalter.
The story has been meticulously written by the husband-wife duo Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon.

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About the film

The film reveals the story of a Pakistani-American boy played by Kumail himself and an American graduate student (played by Zoe Kazan) who have immense love for each other but are subjected to cultural pressures and decide to not go public with their relationship.

The whole revelation comes to the family when the woman in his life takes ill and has to be put into a medically-induced coma in order to save her. Kumail and Emily had disclosed to the media that this is their true-life story.

Talking about it, Kumail had said:

“This sounds like a movie moment, but it really, really isn’t. I remember seeing her laying there in the coma for the first time and I remember having the thought, If she comes out of this, I’m going to marry her.”

In real life, the woman that is Emily came out of her come and the couple married 3 months later. Emily and Kumail did not want to write anything that might hurt the sentiments of people or may sound disrespectful or off-color.

Emily said:

“Because we had been through it … we knew the emotional truth of what happened. And we knew that we didn’t want to disrespect what actually happened and the seriousness of being in a medically induced coma.”

Emily’s induced coma and the reason for it

Emily spoke at length about her problem. She said:

“I had been sick for a little while and people kept telling me I had the flu, I had pneumonia, I was having panic attacks. None of that seemed right to me. … Every time I went in, they would diagnose me with something different, and all I knew was that I felt quite awful and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. …”

She continued:

“I went to the doctor and they decided to admit me to the hospital because my breathing was so unstable that they wanted to kind of check me out in a hospital. And by the time I got there, my breathing was so unstable, as was my heart rate, that the only thing they could do to kind of keep me safe and keep my vitals stabilized was to put me on a respirator. And you should not be on a respirator while you are conscious, so that is why they put me in a medically induced coma.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter (Kumail and Emily)

Kumail was moved to tears on seeing her in the ER and he and her parents (Beth and Terry) were encouraged to talk to Emily by the nurse which they obediently did and it helped. After she recovered, Kumail and Emily got married without an engagement. Emily said:

“We were just like, “Yeah, that’s it. We’re getting married,” in kind of this fever haze just a few months after I got out of the hospital. …”

About Emily’s disease-adult onset Still’s Disease (AOSD)

Emily was unsure about what she had for the most part of her disease. It was when she was hospitalized, put on a ventilator, and subjected to a battery of tests was her diagnosis made.

She was found to be affected by a rare form of arthritis called Adult Onset Still’s Disease. It is an autoimmune disease that leads to swelling (inflammation) of the major organs of the body including the joints. Emily’s lungs and kidneys faced the brunt.

Source: DoveMed (Still's Disease) — Source: DoveMed (Still’s Disease)

There could be a high fever and skin rashes. It can be episodic or chronic. She said:

“Basically, your organs can start getting inflamed as if they’re under attacked and have an infection, but they’re not, Because I wasn’t diagnosed or being treated for it, it just kept getting worse and worse. My organs kept getting more and more inflamed until I had to be hospitalized.”

The cause of this disease is unknown and it has no cure but can be controlled with medicines.

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Short bio on Emily V. Gordon

Emily Vance Gordon is a famous writer, producer, and podcast director from the United States. She co-wrote the Hollywood comedy The Big Sick in 2017 which was based on her relationship with her husband Kumail Nanjiani. Emily recently signed a contract with Amazon’s Film Studio to adapt the bestseller novel The Nest written by Cynthia D’aprix Sweeney. More bio…

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