LaVar Ball Talks Near-Death Health Scare in First Interview Since Amputation
I’m gonna give y’all the real deal. Recently, I had some personal issues I had to deal with. I had an infection where I was in the hospital for over a month. This happened right in the middle of when Gelo’s banger “Tweaker” was blowing up around the world, in January. Funny how life works sometimes.
I had an infection on my foot that started spreading through my blood due to not paying attention to my diabetes. I ended up having to get my leg amputated. First, they cut off a couple of toes. Then they cut off my foot. Then they said, We gotta go almost knee high for another surgery. Three surgeries. And then there were also the blood transfusions. Not one, not two, not three, four different times.
All those surgeries and blood transfusions, it made me question whether it was worth going through it sometimes. It made me think, Man, just kill me and let me go about my business. It made me think that maybe it’s time for me to shut it down.
But then seeing what my boys are doing out there, they’re like, Dad you’re the toughest dude I know. That made me keep going. Even though I’m a bad man—I don’t need much—it was good to have that backing from my boys. One of the things that makes me go is when they are all together. When they are all together, I feel strong.
https://www.slamonline.com/the-magazine/slam-255/lavar-ball-own-words/