Elvis Presley was one of the most significant people to have ever existed in the music industry. Presley’s career was undoubtedly full of controversies and he was criticized regularly as well. However, separating the art from the artist, he had an impact on music that very few have managed to replicate. Also being called the King of Rock and Roll, he completely changed the world of music for the better.
This is why when the news hit of the beloved artist and actor’s untimely passing on 16 August 1977, the world stopped for a second. What made this worse was the fact that the behavior of his family, and the cause of his death, though announced to be a heart attack, were still quite mysterious. On this note, here are all of the aspects surrounding the passing of the rock legend that was Presley.
The Circumstances of Elvis Presley’s Death
On August 16, 1977, Ginger Alden, the then-girlfriend of Elvis Presley, found the singer and actor’s body on the bathroom floor of his Graceland home. She revealed in her memoir, Mirror, that she found him lying on the floor, face first, with his pajama bottoms, resting on his ankle. She also mentioned that she knew at that moment, but as soon as he hit the cold floor of the bathroom, he did not move.
“His arms lay on the ground, close to his sides, palms facing upward. It was clear that, from the moment he landed on the floor, Elvis hadn’t moved.” Expressing her horror, she wrote in the book, “I gently turned his face toward me. A hint of air expelled from his nose. The tip of his tongue was clenched between his teeth and his face was blotchy. I gently raised one eyelid. His eye was staring straight ahead and blood red.”
While it is natural that when a celebrity passes away, there will be conspiracy theories surrounding their death, fans had more to support them in this context. The biggest factor that fueled their flames was the fact that the family of Presley decided to have the autopsy report sealed for 50 years. The official cause of death was put out to be hypertensive heart disease, with coronary artery heart disease that was a contributor.
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The Public Was Not Convinced
Dan Warlick, the Chief Investigator for the Tennessee Office of the State Chief Medical Examiner, who attended Elvis Presley’s autopsy said otherwise. He believed that Presley’s lifestyle of abusing prescription drugs and having high fat and cholesterol intake had led to him suffering from chronic constipation. He was also suffering from several severe health problems, having been hospitalized four times in the last five years of his life. This included hypertension, an impacted or enlarged colon, mild diabetes, as well as a problem.
According to him, the actor and singer attempted to defecate forcefully, which resulted in his abdominal aorta getting compressed. This resulted in his heart shutting down. Many have also speculated the cause of Presley’s death to be drug use, or a drug overdose, activities he was known for. however, many have come out to deny the speculations. The lack of a concrete answer and an abundance of theories have led to a lot of mystery around what happened to Elvis Presley.
