Grammy Award-winning songstress, Amy Winehouse, 24, has just been diagnosed with emphysema, an irreversible lung condition that threatens to cripple and kill her if she doesn’t immediately quit smoking cigarettes and crack cocaine, according to her father, Mitch.
Mitch took his daughter to the hospital on Monday after she collapsed at home. When he joined her for lunch the day before, Mitch noticed that his daughter was experiencing unnatural flickering and squinting of her eyes, a warning signal that occurred twice in the past year, each time just before she had a seizure. One seizure followed a massive drug binge. This time, her father thinks Amy was binging on crack cocaine for several days before hospitalization and the singer reported she hadn’t slept in 48 hours.
Prognosis is grim for Winehouse. Doctors fear the incurable lung disease will leave her too ill to breathe on her own within just a month’s time if all smoking isn’t stopped completely. The disease, and her addiction, threaten to rob her of her voice and the physical stamina to perform. There are grave concerns that she may soon need an oxygen mask on a permanent basis and perhaps even a wheelchair to get around.
Saying her lung capacity has been reduced to just 70%, Winehouse’s father describes her lungs as “all gunked up” but there are additional concerns over a lump in the singer’s chest, which was discovered during scanning examinations. Blood tests reveal no indication of cancer but the mass in her chest may need to be biopsied before a diagnosis can be made.
Winehouse was dehydrated, frail, and suffering from dangerously irregular heartbeats when she was admitted to The Clinic, a private hospital in London. In an interview yesterday evening with the Sunday Mirror, Mitch Winehouse reported that Amy is much better now, after sleeping through most of the first three days of her hospitalization. Her color and skin tone are more healthy looking and her appetite has returned.
Doctors at The Clinic say the singer will probably be well enough to perform as scheduled at next weekend’s Glastonbury Festival, news her father finds particularly encouraging. He says Amy keeps her drug use under control when performing and lapses into decline during idle periods between concert dates.
Mitch Winehouse says Amy says she is ready to leave the hospital but is expected to remain hospitalized for another week. Her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, is currently in jail awaiting sentencing but has already told Amy’s father that he’d like to undergo drug rehabilitation upon his release. He vows to do his best to help Amy kick her addiction and regain her health.
In the meantime, Mitch Winehouse has issued a public appeal to his daughter’s drug suppliers and circle of friends who abuse drugs, asking them to please stop supplying her with drugs and to stop indulging in them in her presence.
Mitch is particularly devastated by Amy’s emphysema diagnosis as it comes within just two years of the death of his mother to lung cancer. His mother, Cynthia Winehouse, was a singer idolized by her granddaughter, who has Cynthia’s name tattooed on her arm.
Source: Sunday Mirror