Singer Barry White Planning for Kidney Transplant
Thu Oct 31, 6:51 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Soul singer Barry White, battling kidney failure, is resting comfortably while doctors conduct tests to find a suitable transplant donor among his eight children, a spokesman said on Thursday.
The 58-year-old entertainer was hospitalized last month for kidney dialysis, but he is now at home and undergoing dialysis ever other day on an out-patient basis as his condition improves, White's manager, Ned Shanker, told Reuters.
"He's doing really great. I was with him last night, and things are going really well," Shanker said, adding that the hefty singer has been dieting and has gotten his high blood pressure under control.
He said tests were being performed to determine whether any of White's children would make a suitable organ donor to provide a kidney to their father for a transplant.
"He's got eight kids," Shanker said. "They're doing tests. I don't think we're going to be doing a nationwide search (for a kidney). I think we've got it pretty well covered."
White's label, the Island Def Jam Music Group, disclosed in September that White was undergoing dialysis for kidney failure caused by a history of high blood pressure.
The singer, known for his rich bass vocals and musical love-maestro persona, has provided "the mood" for countless candlelight dinners and late-night trysts with such ballads as "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe," and "You're the First the Last, My Everything."