We lost DMX earlier this year, and now we finally have a clearer picture of why.
As probably you remember, the X Gon’ Give It To Ya rapper passed away on April 9 after a week in the hospital, but according to a source in the Westchester County medical examiner’s office it was much faster than it sounded.
The insider told Vulture on Thursday that while his body was able to be kept alive, it was always just prolonging the inevitable:
“His death literally happened immediately because the brain was dead… So obviously, there were a number of days where he was on ventilatory support and so forth in the hospital. However, he was diagnosed brain-dead early on … He never woke up from [a] coma.”
The cause of death? A heart attack caused by acute cocaine intoxication. The source explained:
“It was cardiac arrest for a period of time, so there was no circulation to the brain.”
The insider says the medical examiner’s office did not perform an actual autopsy as there was no need; the presence of cocaine was detected in his urine, and the heart failure was known from the moment paramedics were called. The source explains DMX, real name Earl Simmons, was actually revived for a moment as he was being rushed to the hospital, with his heart giving off a pulse. However, there was 30-40 full minutes between when paramedics arrived and he was put on life support. It was just too long without oxygen for his brain to survive.
Sad news, but it does make the rapper’s family’s statement upon his death that much more poignant. Breaking the news, they said:
“We are deeply saddened to announce today that our loved one, DMX, birth name of Earl Simmons, passed away at 50 years old at White Plains Hospital with his family by his side after being placed on life support for the past few days. Earl was a warrior who fought till the very end.”
He “fought till the very end.” They were so right. For a week, his heart just refused to give up.
This should also clear up some pretty disturbing rumors as some folks took X’s death as an opportunity to push their weird anti-vaxxer agenda.
DMX’s longtime attorney Murray Richman made it perfectly clear to conspiracy theorists who have been claiming the Cradle 2 The Grave star died as a result of the COVID vaccine, the claim is total nonsense. He said:
“Persons who made that statement had no basis to formulate a belief.”
DMX neither caught the coronavirus nor took the vaccine.
What he did take, sadly, was too much cocaine. A terrible loss for the music industry and the world, but all too explainable in the end.
#RIPDMX
[Image via WENN.]
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