Page 5 - Duff McKagan Case Study

Recounting how he drank his own vomit, because it had alcohol in it.

How he used cocaine just so he could drink more McKagan tried in 1992

to stop his gallon-of-vodka-a-day habit by switching to 10 bottles of wine.

However, after a few weeks he started drinking again but:

“My hair began falling out in clumps, and my kidneys

ached when I pissed. The skin on my hands and feet

cracked, and I had boils on my face and neck. I had to

wear bandages under my gloves to be able to play my

bass”

In May 1994, McKagan finally made his way back to his Lake

Washington home to rest after his three years of touring and partying.

But one morning he woke up in excruciating pain. His pancreas had

burst from drinking too much.

“My pancreas, apparently swollen to the size of a

football from all the booze, had burst. I had third-

degree burns all over the inside of my body from the

digestive enzymes released by the damaged pancreas.

Only a few parts of the inside of your digestive tract

can handle the enzymes, and the outsides of your

organs and your stomach muscles are definitely not

among them—it just burns all that tissue”

During surgery, doctors repaired the pancreas by removing the top and

attended to the other damaged organs. But against the odds McKagan
survived though he will be on dialysis for the rest of his life.