Jonathan Davis has written an open letter to his fans and friends regarding the illness that kept him away from Download 2006.
He writes,
Hey everyone,
I am writing this to thank everyone who called, or emailed me the past few days, believe me, they have been some of the scariest days of my life.
This is the short version of what happened. I started getting these weird bruises all over my body about 2 weeks ago. I was getting very weak after the shows so I saw a doctor in London Friday. He took some blood tests and when the results came in they rushed me to the hospital. It turned out that I have ITP, it's too hard to spell, but basically it's a blood infection, where because of an allergic reaction I had to some medication, my blood platelets, the stuff my bone marrow produces to help my blood clot, were really low. I mean way low. Most humans have between 140 and 400 in their cells. I had 5.. no joke... FIVE. If I continued to headbang on stage I could have had a brain hemorrahage and dropped dead on the spot.
My doctors ordered me to remain at the hospital until they could get my blood in some kind of healthy shape.
I want to thank the doctors, nurses and staff at The London Clinic, all the singers who performed with the band at the London festival: Cory from Slipknot/Stone Sour, Dez from Devildriver, Jesse from Ten Years, Benji and Skindred, Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold, and Matt from Trivium. I want to thank my band and crew for all their love and support, my loving family and friends and most of all the fans, the best fans in the world.
The doctors are telling me that each day I've been here in the hospital my platelet count has been going up and I should be healthy to play in a few weeks. The doctors have cleared me to walk around a bit but I am unable to perform a show or travel right now. They will know more in a day or two but I want everyone to know that we will do our very best to come back soon to play any dates we are unable to play on this tour.
Thank you,
Love Jonathan.