Lou Reed Recovering From Liver Transplant

FORMER VELVET UNDERGROUND FRONT MAN
RECOVERING FROM LIFE-SAVING SURGERY

Lou Reed

Walking on the wild side isn’t without its risks. This morning the Times of London published an interview with performance artist Laurie Anderson in which she revealed that her husband, Lou Reed, recently received an emergency liver transplant. The 71-year-old underwent the operation at clinic in Cleveland, OH and is currently recovering.

Anderson told the Times that the situation leading to the surgery was dire, “It’s as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don’t get it for fun.” She went on to explain how it went down, saying it was “a big surgery which went very well” in which “You send out two planes – one for the donor, one for the recipient – at the same time. You bring the donor in live, you take him off life support.”

Why didn’t Lou have the surgery in his beloved hometown of New York City? “They have the best results for heart, liver and kidney transplants. Whenever I get discouraged about how stupid technology is and how greedy and stupid Americans are, I go to the Cleveland clinic because the people there are genuinely very kind and very smart,” Anderson said about the Ohio clinic.

The prognosis seems to be good for the former Velvet Underground front man as he’s returned to his t’ai chi rituals with Anderson adding, “he’ll totally recover from this.”

UPDATE (10 a.m. PT – 06/02): Lou Reed has posted the following message on his Facebook page:

I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics and chemistry. I am bigger and stronger than stronger than ever. My Chen Taiji and health regimen has served me well all of these years, thanks to Master Ren Guang-yi. I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future.

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