Inside Frank Fritz's Health Battles Before His Death: Stroke, Crohn's Disease and More

Before his death, Frank Fritz had long endured Crohn's disease, which he called "a terrible, terrible" illness.

The American Pickers star was diagnosed with the chronic disease almost 40 years before his passing, and he said, "It's a disease that affects so many peoples' lives and their family members."

As a member of Quad-Cities' Crohn's support group, Fritz dedicated his time to raising awareness about the health condition.

He added, "I'm trying to show people that regardless of the adversities ... and the social situations, the awkwardness, accidents, that you can live a productive life. It's a tough hand I've got dealt to me in my life, but you can still do stuff out there. It's about planning and nutrition and making provisions to yourself for your health and safety."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the bowel disease inflames areas of a patient's intestine walls, causing symptoms like mouth sores, diarrhea or malnutrition.

Amid his absence from American Pickers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fritz revealed he had a major surgery after developing back problems while working on the show.

"I had a couple of rods put in there. It was from lifting stuff all the time. If you watch the show, you can see who the guy is that's lifting all the time, it's always me. It had been hurting for a long, long time. I'm talking months and months and months," he told The Sun in 2021, saying the procedure left him with 185 stitches and two rods.

Fritz added, "Finally I had it looked at and they said it was about ready to split in half, the bones going up in the middle of my spine."

In a 2022 Instagram post, American Pickers former co-host Mike Wolfe asked fans to keep Fritz in their thoughts after he was hospitalized due to a stroke. He did not disclose the severity of Fritz's condition, but reports later confirmed he was already on the mend.

Fritz's family issued a statement on Facebook on October 1, confirming he died in a hospice facility in Iowa at the age of 60.

"This is a very tough announcement to make Frank passed away last night around 7:30. He was surrounded by myself, Mike Wolfe made a high speed to get back here from Nashville and other friends," the bereaved loved ones wrote.

They added, "Please understand this is a very rough time for us. Including Mike so be kind as we are trying to figure out how to cope with this. Thank you all for your love and support through the years."

Meanwhile, Wolfe posted a tribute on Instagram, calling his late friend "a dreamer" who was just "as sensitive as he was funny." He spoke about their time on American Pickers before expressing how much he would miss Fritz.

Fritz's friend Jerry Gendreau broke his silence over a week after the late star's death, noting his pal was struggling in the last few years of his life.

"He felt really, really bad," he told The Sun. "You would go to see him in the nursing home and one-half of his body was completely done. He would lift his arm up and it would just drop. That's got to be tough to be totally bedridden."

Gendreau noted Fritz's frustration with his body, adding he "could've lived a lot longer if the will to live would've been there."

Fritz's death certificate, obtained by TMZ, revealed that he died from "late sequela of cerebral infarction" as a result of cerebral vascular disease. He also suffered from aortic stenosis, which was one of the contributing factors in his death.