Tina Turner's Second Partner Sacrificed An Organ For Her Because 'He Didn't Want Another Woman'
Shola Lee
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
In December 2016, Tina Turner was nearing death; her kidneys were functioning at 20 percent and 'plunging rapidly'.
The 'Proud Mary' singer had just beaten intestinal cancer and a stroke, when her kidneys started to fail.
She was faced with two choices: dialysis or transplant.
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This is where her second husband, German music exec Erwin Bach, stepped up and made a huge sacrifice.
Turner told fans of her health struggles and recovery in her autobiography My Love Story, which was later released as a series in the Daily Mail.
Speaking of that fateful December, Turner said: "Only the transplant would give me a good chance of a near-normal life. But the chances of getting a donor kidney were remote."
The iconic singer refused to start dialysis, as she didn't want to 'live on a machine'.
She went on: "It wasn't my idea of life. But the toxins in my body had started taking over.
"I couldn't eat. I was surviving but not living. I began to think about death.
"If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was OK. When it's time, it's really time."
Turner even signed up for assisted suicide group Exit, but before things could go further, Bach stepped in.
Tina continued: "He said he didn't want another woman, or another life.
"Then he shocked me. He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys."
And if that doesn't make you think love has everything to do with it, we don't know what will.
After tests confirmed that a transplant was viable, the pair underwent surgery in April 2017.
It was a success and Turner reflected on the moment she was reunited with her love post-surgery.
She said: "The best moment was when Erwin came rolling into my room in his wheelchair.
"He somehow managed to look good, even handsome, as he greeted me with an energetic: 'Hi, darling!' I was so emotional - happy, overwhelmed and relieved that we'd come through this alive."
Bach made a full recovery, while Turner continues to take immunosuppressants to help ensure that her body doesn't reject the transplant.
Turner and Back met in 1985 when she arrived in Cologne, Germany for her Private Dancer tour
Bach, who was an exec for EMI, her European record company, turned up with a gift from her manager Roger Davies: a notoriously hard to get Mercedes Jeep.
But it wasn't the car that surprised Turner, it was the man sitting in it.
Tina wrote: "My heart suddenly started to beat BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, drowning out all other sounds. My hands were ice-cold.
"So this is what they call love at first sight, I thought. Oh my God, I am not ready for this."
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