Mumbai:
Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan says he is suffering from liver cirrhosis though he does not drink alcohol.
Twenty-eight years after he survived a near fatal accident on the sets of Manmohan Desai's Hindi film 'Coolie', the 67-year-old actor says he contracted the disease, normally associated with alcoholics, through transfusion of blood from an unknown donor during emergency surgery.
"I was therefore technically, or shall we say in medical terminology, a patient by default," Bachchan wrote on his blog.
Bachchan seriously injured his intestines during a fight scene with co-actor Puneet Issar on August 2, 1982. He was taken to the hospital and was operated upon. He remained critically ill for many months.
"Some of the blood from a unknown donor was infected with the Autralian antigen Hepatitis. It was also an unknown hepatitis in 1982... It went into my system and festered and attacked my liver. 8 years ago during the course of an MRI, they discovered that 25 per cent of my liver had been destroyed by it," Bachchan said communicating to his fans through the blog.
The actor said he was surprised he was suffering from the liver disease despite being a non-drinker himself.
"I was therefore technically, or shall we say in medical terminology, a patient by default. A patient that had developed cirrhosis of the liver--a condition that is normally associated with that of an alcoholic. So here I was a non-alcoholic, a teetotaler, with an ailment that I imbibed through a blood transfusion from a donor!!" Bachchan wrote.
The actor has never recovered fully from the disease and needs constant monitoring.
"Now since the liver and any ailment associated with it is extremely sensitive, I have to be under constant vigil and monitoring, to keep checking if there is any further damage taking place to the liver or not." he wrote.
The Coolie accident received wide coverage and a Bacchant hysteria gripped the country. Hordes of fans thronged temples, praying for his well-being.