[READ: Heavy D’s Family Wants You To Know… ]
There were several conflicting reports about his cause of death and the 44 year old rapper’s untimely passing was blamed on everything from heart failure, to weight issues to pneumonia (since friends confirmed he’d been suffering from a cough).
Myers’ official cause of death has been revealed and it’s not what we originally believed…
His pulmonary embolism was caused by deep leg vein thrombosis:
A pulmonary embolism is a blockage of one or more arteries in the lungs — most often caused by blood clots which travel in from other parts of he body.
In Heavy’s case, the clot was formed in his legs.
Deep leg vein thrombosis is often associated with long plane flights, in which a clot can form due to prolonged immobility.
Days before Heavy died, he was on a flight back from Europe, after performing at the Michael Jackson tribute concert in Wales.
The blood clot was “most likely formed during an extended airplane ride,” said Craig Harvey, chief of the Los Angeles County department of coroner.
Initially, it was reported that the rapper and actor suffered from pneumonia, and that the illness may have been the cause of his death. A toxicology report found the presence of mediation in Heavy D’s system, but it was at a therapeutic level.
“He was treating himself with cough syrup,” Harvey said. “But it was not contributory [to his death].”
He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after collapsing outside his Beverly Hills home after returning from a shopping trip. Before collapsing, he had seen a private physician for a cough.
The Coroner’s Office classified the death as “natural”.
VIDEO: Heavy D’s Final Performance (2011 BET Hip-Hop Awards)