80s TV star ‘lived without any kidneys’ for over two decades before death aged 42-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

An 80s TV star ‘lived without a single kidney’ for over two decades (Picture: ABC Photo Archives/ Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

Gary Coleman ‘lived without a single kidney in his body’ for nearly 25 years before his death.

The American actor began his career as a child and was best known for playing Arnold Jackson in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes from 1978 until 1986.

Throughout this time, Coleman also became the highest-paid child actor on television, also appearing in Hello, Larry, The Facts of Life, Silver Spoons and Amazing Stories.

He was also the star of his own Saturday morning cartoon The Gary Coleman Show and headlined two movies – On the Right Track and Jimmy the Kid.

After being adopted, Coleman lived with a kidney disease throughout his life, with the steroids and medications used to treat it limiting his growth to 4’8 (142 cm).

Now, a new documentary about his life titled Gary, has revealed the actor, who died aged 42 in 2010, lived without any kidneys.

Gary Coleman starred in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes (Picture: ABC Photo Archives/ Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

He was diagnosed with a kidney disease as a child (Picture: CBS via Getty Images)

When he was five years old, Coleman had a kidney transplant, which allowed him to survive into adulthood.

‘The kidney that had been transplanted was absorbed by the body. So, from December 1 1985 until his death, Gary lived without a single kidney in his body,’ his lifelong friend Dion Mial explained.

‘He then started on dialysis.’

Coleman’s mother Edmonia Sue recalled in the documentary how her son was diagnosed with a congenital kidney defect, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, when he was two years old.

However, when he was five, they received the news there was a kidney available for him.

‘Two weeks after he had his surgery he was standing on his head,’ she said.

However, the prognosis that he would be ‘lucky’ to make it to adulthood and would need another kidney transplant if that happened.

The actor died aged 42 in 2010 after suffering a stroke (Picture: Jesse Grant/ WireImage)

When he was 17, Coleman became sick, with the transplanted kidney re-absorbed into his body, leaving him without a single kidney.

He then had to undergo dialysis three days per week, four hours per day for the rest of his life.

During his final years on Diff’rent Stokes, Coleman struggled to make it through scenes, with his former co-stars recalling how he at times would ‘throw up’ on set while trying to push through.

In 2009 he then became to suffer seizures and after a fall at his home the following year, he was left with an intracranial haemorrhage and died two days later.

Gary is streaming on Peacock.

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