For the past month or so, fans of sludge heavy-metal band Eyehategod have anxiously held their fingers crossed, hoping beloved frontman Mike IX Williams would successfully come out the other side of serious health issues regarding his liver. Well, fans have finally received some good news.
In a post from his partner, Michelle Maher-Williams, she revealed that Williams had been taken into surgery for a liver transplant.
“This morning we got the call we’d been waiting for,” she writes. “They found a donor to match for Michael! After waiting all day…they just took him down to prep for the transplant.”
A few hours later, Michelle Maher-Williams gave fans another update.
“Surgeon just came to talk to me-it’s over!” she happily reports. “New liver is functioning and making bile. They’re taking him to ICU now and I can see him in about an hour.”
The good news comes after a stressful two years both for those close to Williams and his fans and supporters.
Williams had first been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver back in December of 2014 after being hospitalized while on tour with the band in Texas. Williams didn’t lose hope after the diagnosis, and he began making healthy changes in his lifestyle and even saw improvement at times, although his health continued to be a problem for the band while on tour, at one point even ending up in a coma, being kept alive through life support.
In November of this year, his wife finally revealed how serious his health issues were when she started YouCaring fundraising page for an urgent liver transplant. The decision came after Williams was hospitalized again within the past few months for internal bleeding, where it became quite clear to that his liver was not healing fast enough and that a new liver would be needed.
Though Williams had wished to keep the issue private, the fundraising proved a success as fans and the metal community at large came together and raised a total of $70,000 to help alleviate the costs of medical and living expenses as a lack of touring has chipped away at Williams’ income.
While Williams will have a long road to recovery ahead of him, the news provides a tremendous amount of hope for fans that the front man will return sooner, rather than later. In the meantime, Eyehategod will be in good hands with friends of the band Randy Blythe of Lamb of God and legendary Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo filling in for Williams so that he can focus on recovery as the band continues to perform and tour.
If you still wish to support the Williams family while the singer remains sidelined from touring, you can donate to the fundraising page here.
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