Death
On the morning of May 20, 2011, Savage died after suffering a sudden, massive heart attack while driving with his wife in Seminole, Florida, a town on the Pinellas County side of the Tampa Bay area. He was 58 years old. Savage became unresponsive and lost control of his Jeep Wrangler, crashing into a tree.
Initial reports of his death indicated that he had been killed in the collision, when in fact he and his wife had been wearing seatbelts and suffered only minor physical injuries in the crash. An autopsy performed by the Pinellas-Pasco County medical examiner's office found that he had an enlarged heart and advanced coronary artery disease (more than 90% narrowed). The only drugs found in his system were a prescription painkiller and a small amount of alcohol. Savage had never been treated for heart problems and there was no evidence that he was aware of his heart condition. It was unclear whether he had suffered a blockage in his coronary arteries or cardiac arrest from lack of oxygen to the heart muscle. The cause of death was officially ruled as "atherosclerotic heart disease".
On May 30, 2011, 10 days after his death, WWE chairman Vince McMahon, with whom Savage had irreconcilable differences upon his departure from the company in 1994, paid tribute to Savage in a Time magazine article. There, he described Savage as "extremely charismatic", and "one of wrestling's all-time greats". Savage's remains were cremated.
Read more about this topic: Randy Savage
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death freely chosen, death at the right time, brightly and cheerfully accomplished amid children and witnesses: then a real farewell is still possible, as the one who is taking leave is still there; also a real estimate of what one has wished, drawing the sum of one’s life—all in opposition to the wretched and revolting comedy that Christianity has made of the hour of death.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Tear out the close vermiculate crease
Where death crawled angrily at bay.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“People named John and Mary never divorce. For better or for worse, in madness and in saneness, they seem bound together for eternity by their rudimentary nomenclature. They may loathe and despise one another, quarrel, weep, and commit mayhem, but they are not free to divorce. Tom, Dick, and Harry can go to Reno on a whim, but nothing short of death can separate John and Mary.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)