he went down in history as the undisputed king of rock’n’roll. However, it is no secret that in the last months of his life his health deteriorated significantly and he no longer resembled the man he was at the beginning of his career. Once slim and athletic, towards the end of his life he struggled with overweight and a number of other ailments such as hypertension, insomnia and drug addiction. Nevertheless, the singer’s death on August 16, 1977 was a huge surprise for both the artistic community, his fans and his closest family members. What was its cause?
How did the king of rock’n’roll die? This was given as the official cause of death
Presley spent the last days of his life at his Memphis estate, Graceland, resting before a US tour in the company of his 9-year-old daughter Lisa and his partner, Ginger Alden, 21 years his junior. It was the woman who found him around 1 p.m. lying in the bathroom in a puddle of vomit with his pajama pants down. Although resuscitation was started immediately and doctors arrived at the scene, his life could not be saved. An autopsy was performed the same day, and the official cause of death was given as a heart attack. The 42-year-old’s relatives even spoke of a “curse”. He was apparently not the first man in the family to die from this cause at such a young age. However, fans did not believe it.
Presley’s family kept the autopsy results secret for 50 years. Fans came up with a theory about the reason for the musician’s untimely death
Although the results of the autopsy were kept secret at the family’s request and will only see the light of day in 2027, many believe that the cause could have been a drug overdose. It is known that the tests detected as many as 9 different substances in his body, including: codeine, methaqualone and barbiturates. The musician’s personal doctor, Dr. George Nichopoulos, admitted that during the year he prescribed him several dozen different medications, but the artist did not follow the recommendations and administered them himself. Coroner Joseph Davis, who participated in the inquest resumed in 1994, disagreed with this theory. – If it was a drug overdose, he would have started falling asleep more and more. He would pull up his pajama pants and crawl to the door to seek help. It takes many hours to die from a drug overdose – .
Don Warlick, an investigator from the Tennessee Office of the Chief Medical Examiner who participated in Presley’s autopsy, also shared another theory. In his opinion, he died while trying to defecate, which, according to many, made sense because the singer struggled with chronic constipation and also had a damaged intestine. – They caused the so-called Valsalva maneuver, to put it simply, the effort of defecating pressed against the singer’s abdominal aorta, closing his heart – he explained in an interview with the Mirror.
Presley struggled with an autoimmune disease? An American doctor shed new light on the artist’s death
The autopsy report was apparently also analyzed by American doctor Forest Tennant, who completely disagreed with the theses put forward by other specialists, as he attributed the cause of death to events that had taken place a decade earlier. In the late 1960s, Presley began to struggle with severe dizziness, back pain and eye infections, as a result of which he was even hospitalized in 1973 in a semi-coma. He was then diagnosed with jaundice, bleeding ulcers, hepatitis, megacolon and respiratory failure. In his opinion, the problems began after he suffered a head injury 6 years before his hospitalization, tripping over a TV cable in a hotel room. The impact was said to have caused damage to brain tissue, entering the bloodstream, and as a result, activating an autoimmune inflammatory disease that was devastating his body.
If you are struggling with addiction or want to find out how you can help a loved one, you can contact the specialists on duty at these numbers:
- National Addiction Helpline (daily from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.): 800-199-990
- Telephone Trust for behavioral addictions (daily from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.): 800-889-880
- Orange line for parents of children drinking alcohol (Monday to Friday, 2-8 p.m.): 801-140-068
- National Emergency Service for Victims of Domestic Violence Blue Line (24 hours a day): 800-120-002
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Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
