About Ely
Ely Buendia is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of the Philippine Heart Center, recovering from a second angioplasty. He is expected to recover fully. Many thanks to Yan and Diane for the update.
Ely began having chest pains on Sunday afternoon when he and his band Pupil were on their way to a gig in Calamba, Laguna. He played the gig anyway. The band did a one-hour show before an audience of 5,000, and then they got in the van and took Ely to the Asian Hospital in Alabang. It turns out that he’d been having a heart attack for the last five hours. Doctors found an arterial blockage and performed an angioplasty. During the surgery they discovered another arterial blockage. Ely was moved to the Philippine Heart Center, and the second operation was done on Wednesday. Doctors found a third blockage, which was successfully repaired. They say that Ely will be up and about in no time, and recommend changes in his diet and exercise habits.
There have been vile insinuations about Ely’s illness, all of them untrue. Ely is 36 years old, happily married to Diane, with a child he is devoted to. If people persist in clinging to tired stereotypes about rock musicians, the hell with them; Ely has always resisted cliches, and he’s not about to become one. We wish Ely a speedy recovery; see you at the next gig.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 11th, 2007 at 18:26
Grew up with Ely and the Eraserheads. (Well actually I was in an older batch in UP) d I Saw him leave and put up his own band. He’ll be back and Im sure he’ll have great new material using this experience as reference.
January 12th, 2007 at 14:55
It’s understandable that people think Ely’s current condition is a result of drugs. Like you said, cliche: Rock star=drugs. But angioplasty at 36? The other famous person who just had angioplasty is First Gentleman Mike Arroyo. But he had the risk factors: age (in his 60s) overweight, smoking and drinking. So the questions. Does Ely have a family history of heart condition? I know of a family where none of the males made it past the age of 45 due to the same inherited heart ailment. Certainly having other controllable risk factors did not help extend their life expectancy. Ely’s wife told Ricky Lo that Ely doesn’t do drugs, drink or smoke “anymore.” You should know Ely best, having been Eraserheads manager sometime ago. But I think my question is: Is Ely’s past catching up with him?
January 13th, 2007 at 01:29
I hate the guy’s guts. I hate him for disbanding a group which produced my life’s theme songs.
But I deeply respect him.