Sarah Hyland Says She Was 'Dead Asleep' On 'Modern Family' Set Before Kidney Transplant

Sarah Hyland shares the health struggles she faced at work before getting a kidney transplant.

The actress, 31, who played Haley on the hit ABC sitcom "Modern Family," appeared on Monday's episode of the "Quitters" podcast and talked about the exhausting days she faced on the set before her first kidney transplant.

"There are some episodes of Modern Family where I do not remember filming because I was asleep, dead a-- asleep," she told hosts Julie Bowen, who was her TV mom, and Chad Sanders.

"The episode where Haley asked money from Luke. And he's like, 'Don't worry, I got it on ice.' It's like in the freezer or something. That entire episode I was asleep for... I don't remember it at all," Hyland added.

The actress suffers from a chronic kidney condition called kidney dysplasia, which made her undergo two kidney transplants. Before her first transplant, Hyland admitted that she "never said no" to work.

To which, Bowen agreed by saying, "You never say no until you were in the hospital [laughs]."

Hyland recalled during one of her trips to the ER while filming the comedy series: "I was like, 'wait, can I leave? I need to go back to work."

The "Geek Charming" star then explained "how kidney transplants work," telling Bowen and Sanders, "You have to be a certain level of sick in order to receive a transplant, so I was reaching that certain level of sick."

She explained, "I was not able to be awake for like eight hours at a time. I was so exhausted all the time. I will be on set, filming, and I would be dead asleep, my head on the table."

Hyland added, "I would hear and my head would go up on end and then they have action -- will be just going into it. As soon as they all cut, I put my head back down."

During the talk, Hyland shared what it was like to work as an actress while being very sick.

"When you have grown up your entire life having health issues and always essentially being in pain, you have to learn how to have thick skin, put on a show, put on a smile in front of everybody," she said. "Because otherwise, you're just going to be looked at as a really weak and pathetic and sad person. I don't like to victimize myself. I don't like other people to victimize me."

Hyland's dad gave her one of his for her first kidney transplant in 2012. Four years later, her body rejected the transplanted organ, and she needed dialysis treatment for kidney failure. In 2017, the actress' brother donated one of his kidneys for her second transplant, which has been successful so far.

Hyland experienced emotional trauma from the first rejection, and she was worried that the second one would be the same.

“I was very depressed,” she told Self in December 2018. “When a family member gives you a second chance at life, and it fails, it almost feels like it's your fault. It's not. But it does.”