Amy Winehouse Diagnosed With Early Stage Emphysema

06/23/08 4:30pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

They tried to make her go to rehab, and she said no, no, no… and then she developed emphysema.

Amy Winehouse has been diagnosed with emphysema, a chronic, progressive disease caused by lung damage that results in shortness of breath. It can be fatal if not treated. While emphysema is normally caused by smoking cigarettes, Winehouse's father Mitch has said doctors have told the singer her disease has been caused by smoking crack cocaine.

"The doctors have said that if she had continued in the way she was going she could have ended up an invalid — she wouldn't have been able to breathe," Mitch Winehouse told the U.K.'s Daily Mail tabloid. "With smoking the crack cocaine and cigarettes her lungs are all gunked up. There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She's got 70 per cent lung capacity."

Mitch Winehouse also confirmed what doctors told his daughter last week — that she must stop using drugs or she'll die. He said should the singer continue smoking crack, she would need an oxygen mask to breathe and would be confined to a wheelchair.

"To think this could be my beautiful 24-year-old daughter's life is so preposterous," Mitch Winehouse told the Daily Mail. "But if drugs mean more to her than breathing properly, then so be it.

"But the doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won't just ruin her voice, it will kill her."

Dr. Keith Prowse, a spokesperson for the British Lung Foundation, told the U.K.'s Times newspaper that emphysema normally affects people over 40 who have typically smoked for many years before the first signs of the lung disease show up. While usually only those with end-stage emphysema are confined to wheelchairs and have to wear oxygen masks, Prowse said Winehouse's ability to sing may be compromised by the disease.

Winehouse collapsed at her London, England home last week after signing autographs for Canadian fans on her front porch. Mitch Winehouse took her to hospital and doctors at first realized the singer had an irregular heartbeat. But they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her for several days. News that Winehouse was coughing up blood led to speculation late last week that she was suffering from tuberculosis, but she later tested negative for the disease.

Mitch Winehouse says this recent information has made his daughter take stock of her situation and she has vowed to begin a drug replacement program. He also told people like Pete Doherty to stay away from the singer.

"I'm saying to those drug dealers, and they know who they are, if they are supplying crack to Amy, then they've got to take responsibility," he said in The Daily Mail. "I don’t want her hanging out with her mates like Pete Doherty either."

But as for Blake Fielder-Civil, Winehouse's jailed husband who's alleged to have been the one who introduced her to drugs in the first place, Mitch Winehouse had better things to say.

"Blake apologised to me for getting Amy into drugs and says he's going to try and put it right," he told The Daily Mail. "Blake was clean when I saw him but he's told me he wants to go into rehab. We've organized it so that as soon as he's out, that happens.

"He wants to go from zero to hero. It's very hard for him being in prison, but at least he's been trying."

Fielder-Civil plead guilty to grievous bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice earlier this month. He admitted he attacked pub owner James King and then tried to cover it up by trying to get a witness to withdraw from the trial. As for how Fielder-Civil feels about Doperty… well, let's just say he doesn't like him either.