While her family did not reveal her exact cause of death, rock icon Tina Turner said in an interview that she was suffering with ‘never-ending’ kidney issues two months before her death on Wednesday in Switzerland.
Turner, who had received a kidney transplant from her husband, Erwin Bach, said in March that her body tried to reject the organ.
“The months after the transplantation were marked by a never-ending up and down,” Turner, 83, told the European Health Kidney Alliance in an interview.
“From time to time my body tried to reject the donor kidney as it frequently happens after a transplantation.”
Turner said in the interview that she would have to be hospitalized frequently and was left feeling “scared.”
“My kidneys are victims of me denying the fact that my hypertension needed therapy with conventional medicine. I put myself at great danger by refusing to accept the reality that I required daily medication for the rest of my life. I considered my body an invulnerable and indestructible bastion for way too long,” Turner said.”
“I have been suffering from hypertension for a long time, got diagnosed in 1978, but didn’t care much about it. I can’t remember ever getting an explanation about what high blood pressure means or how it affects the body. I considered high blood pressure my normal,” Turner went on.
“In 1985 a doctor gave me a prescription for pills of which I was supposed to take one a day, and that was it. I didn’t give it any more thought. After suffering a stroke in 2009 because of my poorly controlled hypertension, I struggled to get back up on my feet. This is when I first learned that my kidneys didn’t work that well anymore.”
Cher, who was a long-time friend of Turner’s, told CNN that Turner had been ill for some time.
“She fought this sickness for such a long time and she was so strong as you think she would be,” Cher said. “But I know towards the end, she told me once, she said, ‘I’m really ready. I just don’t want to put up with this anymore,’” Cher said.
According to CNN, Cher did not say what Turner died from but had talked about Turner having a dialysis machine in her home in Switzerland. Dialysis is a treatment for late-stage kidney disease.
