Garry Shandling’s doctor refuses to sign death certificate, coroner’s office to investigate cause of

[WhiteTara]

Source: ny daily news

Garry Shandling’s doctor is reportedly mystified as to why the beloved standup died — and his refusal to sign the death certificate has spurred the coroner’s office to investigate.

Shandling’s physician has “repeatedly refused” to sign the document because he believed the “Larry Sanders Show” creator — whom he hadn’t examined in more than a year — to be in fine physical condition, TMZ reported Saturday.

As a result, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office has subpoenaed the comedian’s medical records and collected blood work from the emergency room at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, where Shandling was pronounced dead Thursday morning.

A source close to the comedian told the Daily News Thursday that the 66-year-old Shandling had suffered an apparently massive heart attack.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/garry-shandling-doctor-refuses-sign-death-certificate-article-1.2578566

[Jackie Wilson Said]

1. True comic genius, he was. Two groundbreaking TV shows.

[ananda]

2. Sounds like somebody's in denial.

..

[1monster]

3. It's possible. I've known people who checked out fine on cardio vascular

health exams and six months later were undergoing bypass surgeries or receiving stents. Those artery blocking clogs can pop up seemingly out of no where.

On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to do a little investigating...

[Yo_Mama]

6. Me too. Doesn't hurt to check, though. n/t

[eggplant]

9. I had a regular checkup at my GP the same day I later had an MI at age 37.

Shit happens.

[LittleGirl]

15. ouch! glad you made it ! eom

[eggplant]

21. I'm a cautionary tale.

Sedentary lifestyle, terrible diet, huge family history of cardiac issues. Who would have guessed?

And, yes, thank you... I did make it, with essentially zero damage. I spent four days in Cardiac ICU, earned myself three stents, and went home with just a Band-Aid on my thigh. Surreal.

Oh, and my LAD was something like 95% occluded, too.

[LittleGirl]

22. wow!

have the same family history but I changed my diet, got to walking and haven't suffered one yet. We have the bad thyroid in the family too so that's just as scary but not usually deadly!

You dodged a bullet!

[eggplant]

24. Yep.

As a result, I do have anxiety problems from time to time, and they suck -- they show identical symptoms as cardiac issues. Whee!

I hope you are seeing a cardiologist every so often, given your risks.

Stay well!

[liberal from boston]

27. Comedians & Cars

In Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians & Cars segment w/Garry Shandling last January Gary mentioned that he had problems with his thyroid which resulted in puffiness, bloating. Very poignant now but hilarious when both talked about death.

[TexasBushwhacker]

31. Actually hyperparathyroidism

Among other things, it can cause heart disease.

[christx30]

4. Sounds like that doctor is doing exactly what he should do.

Making sure if something happened that killed his patient, the truth comes out.

[Tempest]

20. "whom he hadn’t examined in more than a year"

Sounds like that doctor is in denial.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Or, since the doctor hadn't examined him in more than a year, he is correctly saying

that his knowledge of Shandling's health is not sufficiently up-to-date for him to give a definitive cause of death without detailed investigation.

In Britain, a doctor signs the death certificate if they attended the deceased during their last illness. Since this doctor says that a year ago, he did not have symptoms of an illness that would have resulted in a sudden massive heart attack, they're doing the right thing.

[OnlinePoker]

5. He didn't look very healthy in the last Captain America movie. n/t

[brush]

7. Right. He looked bloated and his coloring was not good.

[AlbertCat]

8. and his coloring was not good.

Remember.... it's a movie. There's this stuff called "makeup"....


Guys.... please remember that films are not real. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to make things that aren't real look real.... or at least the way the art director wants it to look.

At any rate.... what genius his shows were!!!!! (funny.... the "It's Garry Shandling's Show" show's main comic concept was that it was not real, but a show before a live audience)

[brush]

13. Is this kind of smart-ass critique really necessary? The man died, for God's sake.

I was really referring to recent photos of him as far as his coloring.

I'm sure you must have seen some of them too.

[AlbertCat]

17. Is this kind of smart-ass critique really necessary?

There's nothing smart ass about it. I work in the movies. His color in a movie is chosen and applied with make up. You mentioned nothing about recent photos.



You wouldn't believe how many times I hear things like "I can't believe Daniel Day-Lewis jumped into that waterfall!" He didn't. They didn't even film that near the waterfall. People think film is real. It's not. It becomes a problem when, say, gun lovers think the wild west was just great like in the movies, and running around with a gun is just spiffy. Or that war is like a movie and after we win, the music just comes up and the credits roll and we're all done.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. He saved god?

weird. I didn't know that.

[brush]

29. So you make it two for two.

Maybe you do, but I don't think someone's death is a joking matter.

[Warren Stupidity]

30. Shandling is rolling in his grave!

[pansypoo53219]

18. he had a hyper thyroid condition. made him puffy.

[MADem]

10. Bill Maher took a few moments from his show to deliver a very heartfelt tribute to GS.

He was, apparently, well-liked OFF screen as well. That's important, I think, to have your peers think well of you.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Massive heart attacks can be induced by a blow to the chest.

A timeline of GS's last week would need to be developed.

My father (92) rear-ended a van at a gas station (5 mph tops). He wasn't wearing the seatbelt and the car was old and had no airbag. His chest hit the steering wheel/column. He refused medical attention and didn't tell anyone what happened. If he had gone to the hospital, there's a chance it would have been discovered that the blow partially dissected (tore) a major artery to his heart. He unknowingly bled into his chest for a week, felt a terrible backache, called 911, but it was too late. He was dead of a massive cardiac infarction (heart attack).

[Hawaii Hiker]

12. Or from injury to chest that doesn't heal properly

which is how actor Christopher George died...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_George

[jmowreader]

14. Jim Fixx comes to mind

Jim Fixx launched the running boom in America with his "The Complete Book of Running," which came out in the 1970s and is still in print. He died of a massive heart attack while running...turns out he had a lot of genetic predispositions to heart disease and all the arteries in his heart were almost completely blocked from the overeating and heavy smoking he did before he became a runner, and no one ever caught it.

[reddread]

16. so does Telly Savalas

[FLPanhandle]

25. Sounds like Shandling's doctor is worried he missed something

And is now playing the "he was in fine physical condition" during my last exam card to avoid a lawsuit.

[left-of-center2012]

26. "whom he hadn’t examined in more than a year"

Having worked in nursing much of my life, I know most doctors wouldn't sign off on a death of someone they'd not seen within six months. They'd pass it along for a coroner to review.

[montana_hazeleyes]

28. That totally makes sense.

He hadn't seen him in a year. He couldn't just sign off on it.
RIP Garry

[Myrina]

32. Wouldn't it be the attending / ER doc to sign the cert?

I thought it had to be the doc that "witnessed" & could attest to the death time etc.

[WhiteTara]

33. good catch. Now I wonder too.