Three months after he passed away, DMX’s official cause of death has been revealed.
According to the Westchester County medical examiner’s office, the rap icon died from a cocaine-induced heart attack that caused a lack of blood circulation to his brain.
“It was cardiac arrest for a period of time, so there was no circulation to the brain,” a source told Vulture, while explaining that acute cocaine intoxication had “caused this chain of events.”
DMX, born Earl Simmons, died on April 9 at age 50, a week after being hospitalized in Westchester County, New York. It was previously reported that he had suffered a drug overdose and a heart attack.
Cocaine was found in his system during a urine analysis. The medical examiner’s office did not perform an autopsy, and determined the cause of death based upon documentation provided by medical professionals and police.
When paramedics arrived on the scene on April 2, just minutes after someone called for help, they started to revive Simmons. Although his heart was revived at one point and there was a pulse, his brain was already dead.
“His death literally happened immediately because the brain was dead,” said a source.
He was placed on a ventilator at the hospital, but never woke up from a coma. “So obviously, there were a number of days where he was on ventilatory support and so forth in the hospital,” the source added. “However, he was diagnosed brain-dead early on … He never woke up from [a] coma.”
Simmons’ attorney also shut down unsubstantiated reports that DMX’s death had anything to do with COVID-19 or the vaccine. “Persons who made that statement had no basis to formulate a belief,” said Murray Richman.
