Cirrhosis of liver struck teetotaller Big B after Coolie

NEW DELHI: Liver cirrhosis has claimed about 25% of Amitabh Bachchan’s liver, the filmstar has revealed in his blog. On Friday, he admitted he needs constant medical tests "to keep checking if there is any further damage taking place in the liver". Just a few days ago, the 67-year-old Bollywood actor’s blood report showed "a sudden rise in liver counts and the doctor felt it necessary to investigate further through an MRI". The actor, a teetotaller, disclosed that the ailment was the result of his near-fatal accident on the sets of Manmohan Desai’s Coolie on August 2, 1982. Bachchan damaged his intestines during a fight scene with fellow actor Puneet Issar. He remained critically ill for weeks, even as India prayed for him. According to the blog, he received about 60 bottles of blood from roughly 200 volunteers. One donor was infected with the Australian antigen hepatitis, a routine investigation in 2002 showed."It was an unknownhepatitis in 1982 and there were, perhaps due to the urgency of the matter, noknown immediate tests to ascertain its existence before it was administered. Soit went into my system and festered and attacked my liver,” hewrote.Amitabh Bachchan has said that he contracted cirrhosis ofliver after the Coolie accident in 1982. He has written in his blog: "Eightyears ago during the course of an MRI, they discovered that 25% of my liver hadbeen destroyed by it (cirrhosis), and that after having done that, was now lyinginactive."He added: "I was therefore technically, or shall we say inmedical terminology, a patient by default. A patient that had developedcirrhosis of the liver: a condition that is normally associated with that of analcoholic. So here I was, a non-alcoholic, a teetotaller, with an ailment that Iimbibed through a blood transfusion from a donor!"Dr Subhash Gupta,senior consultant, liver transplant surgery, Apollo Hospital, Delhi, says, thereare three causes of liver cirrhosis—excessive drinking of up to 180ml (sixpegs) per day, viral infections such as hepatitis B and C and fatty liverconditions caused by obesity or diabetes. Hepatitis C, incidentally, is a slowvirus and is an irreversible condition. If untreated, one can die from it.Well-known Hindi actress Meena Kumari died of liver cirrhosis in 1972. She wassaid to be an alcoholic.Bachchan is known to suffer from constantstomach-related ailments. "My stomach is a battlefield," he told TOI in aninterview some time ago. On his 66th birthday on October 11, 2008, the actor wasadmitted to hospital complaining of abdominal pain. Despite theailments, Big B displays a tremendous sense of humour in his blogs. He comparesbeing strapped to a movable stretcher and being shoved inside a hole where hisnose touches the ceiling to "feeling like Charles Bronson in The Great Escapethe classic Steve McQueen adventure in which he is digging a tunnel to escapefrom a German prison". The actor also writes that when the doctors start tounstrap him he feels "like Sachin Tendulkar after he has returned to thepavilion after scoring his 101st Test century".