Michael Jackson is suffering from a rare lung condition and needs to undergo an emergency transplant operation.

Michael Jackson received help walking in Los Angeles earlier this month


Michael Jackson is suffering from a rare lung condition and needs to undergo an emergency transplant operation, according to a report that continues to gain steam.

And his normally outspoken publicist hasn't denied the allegations.

The King of Pop may even be fighting for his life, New York Times bestselling biographer Ian Halperin tells In Touch magazine and Britain's Sunday Express newspaper.

Halperin, author of such tomes as "Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain" and "Stalking Britney: Under Siege With Britney Spears," says Jackson has been diagnosed with Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, an occasionally fatal genetic condition.

"He's had it for years but it's gotten worse," Halperin told In Touch. "He needs a lung transplant but may be too weak to go through with it.

He also has emphysema and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, which his doctors have had a lot of trouble stopping. It's the bleeding that is the most problematic part. It could kill him."

According to Halperin, Jackson "can barely speak" and is having trouble seeing: "The vision in his left eye is 95 percent gone."

Jackson, who has lived largely out the public eye in recent years, shocked fans in July when he was photographed in wheelchair.

The 50-year-old also received help walking when stepped out in Los Angeles earlier this month wearing a Zorro-style face mask.

Jackson's rep was unavailable for comment Sunday, but the singer's brother Jermaine didn't deny the reports, telling Fox News, "He's not doing so well right now. This isn't a good time."