Former WWE star Lloyd Anoa'i shares harrowing story of being diagnosed with kidney failure and horrifying health issue (Exclusive)
Former WWE star Lloyd Anoa'i went through a horrifying health scare over the last few years and shared his story during an interview with Sportskeeda.
The former WWE and ECW Superstar made impressive appearances for both promotions in the 1990s. The veteran has also worked as a trainer at the Wild Samoan Training Center.
Lloyd Anoa'i joined Sportskeeda's Bill Apter and Dr. Chris Featherstone for this week's edition of UnSKripted. There, he spoke in detail about his talented professional wrestling family, his talks with WWE, and his own experiences wrestling. He also talked about the horrifying health scare he had in recent years.
While discussing it, he revealed how he had been diagnosed with kidney failure.
"Two and a half, three years ago, I was diagnosed with kidney failure. I didn't know I had it. I was wrestling, I was doing this, I was doing that, I didn't know I had kidney failure until one day I went to the hospital and I had the flu. I just went there because of the flu. But then they found out there was more going on through bloodwork and X-rays. So, to make it a little more shorter [sic], they found out that my kidneys were not working well. They were basically at 35%, which should have been at 87%. They were down to 35, and they were very concerned about that." (10:55 - 11:31)
He spoke about how it was a scare, and he went to a doctor, who asked him to take a month and get some blood work done before seeing him. He gave him some medication, hoping to help the kidneys function again.
Lloyd returned to him, and it turned out that in a month, the kidneys had gone down from 35% to 6%.
The star discovered that his kidneys were 60% scar tissue and were not strong enough to fight the infection, which resulted in him going on dialysis. He was almost not going to make it, as it was taking a toll on his body.
Former WWE star Lloyd Anoa'i is finally doing better; happy with a second chance at life
The former WWE and ECW star's wife stayed by him throughout the time, and her kidney was a perfect match for him, which was miraculous by itself.
"She took the test, and she was actually my perfect match. Not just bloodwork. It had to be the perfect match, blood, tissue, and size. I'm a big guy. She was actually two centimeters off what my kidney was. The doctor said you could not get more perfect than that. The doctor said that it was one out of a hundred thousand that a husband and a wife would be a perfect match." (13:16 - 13:42)
The WWE veteran went through with the transplant, and with it being done for six months, he was in a better place. He thanked her and God and thanked the fans who prayed for him. The star has lost weight and is working towards getting even fitter.
Currently, Lloyd Anoa'i is even thinking of wrestling again, reveling in his second chance at life.
Sportskeeda wishes Lloyd Anoa'i a continued recovery to return to doing what he does best!
Please credit Sportkeeda Wrestling and embed the YouTube video if you use any of the above quotes.