Natalie Cole, who suffers from hepatitis C that she acquired from a previous drug addiction, recently received a liver transplant. Before the surgery, she was going to kidney dialysis three times a week. Her older sister Carol “Cookie” Cole, whose hospital bedside the singer reluctantly left to receive the transplant, died while the artist was undergoing surgery.
“Our sister Cookie hadn’t been to a doctor in 30 years, and last week she went in and they found a cancerous spot on her lung,” younger sister Timolin Cole told Page Six yesterday. “They had wanted to start chemo right away, but Cookie said no.”
The singer’s surgery was successful and she recovered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She went home Sunday.