Best known as a Slayer founding member, Jeff Hanneman has died at age 49 after apparent complications related to a spider bite. He was a rhythm guitarist for the legendary band whose musical influence was mostly in punk music. He also wrote a number of tracks for Slayer. Check out the 6 Jeff Hanneman pictures below to remember the fallen thrash metal superstar.
Officially, he died of liver failure. However, back in 2011, Jeff Hanneman got bit by a spider and was eventually diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis. Speculation is that the necrotizing fasciitis played a role in the failure of his liver, however his family hasn’t yet confirmed this detail.
No matter how he died, this is a very sad day. R.I.P.
and Jeff spoke about the spider bite 2 years ago…
Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman has detailed his near-death experience this year in a gripping new interview.
He explained how he was relaxing in a hot tub when painless spider bite quickly turned into a deadly degenerative skin disease.
“Didn’t even feel it“, he told Classic Rock (via Blabbermouth). “But an hour later, I knew that I was ill.”
It wasn’t long before he could see his own flesh rotting while on the way to the hospital. “The arm was real hot. I got to the emergency room, and thank god the nurse knew straight away what it was. By chance, although it’s pretty rare, she had seen a case a little while before. At that point, I was an hour away from death.”
It transpired that Hanneman had necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but very severe type of bacterial infection that can destroy the muscles, skin, and underlying tissue.
“Unbelivably, the doctor was a Slayer fan“, said Hanneman. “First thing he said to me was: ‘First I am going to save your life. Then I am going to save your arm. Then I am going to save your career’“.
After emergency surgery and two months of skin grafts and treatment, the risk was onver – but his therapy was only beginning.
“I had to learn to walk again,” Hanneman says: “I hadn’t stood up for a month, apart from anything else. The skin grafts were very painful and all the muscles and tendons in the arm where very weak. That was ok though. I count myself lucky that the nurse and doctor knew right away what had happened to me, because things could have been a whole lot worse.”
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