Bill Clifton hospitalized [updated]

Tineke Marburg, Bill Clifton’s wife, reports that he is in the ICU in Bristol Regional Medical Center in Tennessee, to where he was transferred after spending two days in the Beckley Hospital in West Virginia with what she described as “terrible belly pain.”

Surgeons at Bristol performed surgery as a matter of urgency, removing several feet of tangled, knotted intestine that had died. Tineke went on to say that, “They were able to attach the good intestine again,” thankfully. Latest reports indicate that Clifton is intubated with an irregular heartbeat, and experiencing a lot of pain.

All at Bluegrass Today wish Bill a speedy recovery with no further complications.

Those wishing to send cards and letters can do so to his official mailing address:

Bill Clifton
PO Box 69
Mendota, VA 24270

Keep ‘em comin’ in …. 

UPDATE June 2 – We received this message from Tineke this morning:

“[Bill is] still in ICU, but his ventilator is out now, so he is breathing on his own. He has a lot of pain after the surgery, but (luckily) they give him a lot of pain medication, so he is pretty much out of it, and sleeps all the time unless waking up from pain or dry mouth.

He will not be able to have anything to drink even for days maybe, but I can swab his mouth with one of those pink foam things.

This morning I found to my great delight Dale Jett by his bedside (grandson of Bill’s all-time hero AP Carter, great musician in his own right and dear friend), and he will relieve me early tomorrow morning, so I get a good night’s sleep.”

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About the Author

Richard Thompson

Richard F. Thompson is a long-standing free-lance writer specialising in bluegrass music topics. A two-time Editor of British Bluegrass News, he has been seriously interested in bluegrass music since about 1970. As well as contributing to that magazine, he has, in the past 30 plus years, had articles published by Country Music World, International Country Music News, Country Music People, Bluegrass Unlimited, MoonShiner (the Japanese bluegrass music journal) and Bluegrass Europe. He wrote the annotated series I'm On My Way Back To Old Kentucky, a daily memorial to Bill Monroe that culminated with an acknowledgement of what would have been his 100th birthday, on September 13, 2011.