Tuesday, July 20, 2021

The Mysterious Death of Bruce Lee on This Day in History

 

Bruce Lee, who is considered the greatest martial artist of all time, died on this day (July 20) in 1973. To this day, his death is clouded in mystery. His death was officially ruled the result of a cerebral edema. 

Two months earlier, Lee collapsed during a vocal session for Enter the Dragon at Golden Harvest in Hong Kong. Suffering from seizures and headaches, he was immediately rushed to a hospital in Hong Kong, where doctors diagnosed cerebral edema. They were able to reduce the swelling through the administration of mannitol. The headache and cerebral edema that occurred in his first collapse were later repeated on the day of his death.

On July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong with others to discuss the making of the film Game of Death. Later, Lee complained of a headache, and someone gave him the painkiller Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the tranquilizer meprobamate. Around 7:30 p.m., he went to lie down for a nap. When Lee did not come for dinner, someone came to the apartment, but was unable to wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, and spent ten minutes attempting to revive Lee before sending him by ambulance to the Hospital. Lee was declared dead on arrival at the age of 32.


There was no visible external injury; however, according to autopsy reports, Lee's brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams (a 13 percent increase). The autopsy found Equagesic in his system. On October 15, 2005, producer Raymond Chow stated in an interview that Lee died from an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer meprobamate, the main ingredient in Equagesic, which Chow described as an ingredient commonly used in painkillers. 

Lee's friend Chuck Norris attributed his death to a reaction to the combination of the muscle-relaxant medication he had been taking since 1968 for a ruptured disc in his back and an "antibiotic" he was given for his headache on the night of his death.

Lee actually had his sweat glands removed, so some attribute his death to a heat stroke.

Others says his death was because of bad Feng Shui tied to his home in Hong Kong. According to Lee biographer Bruce Thomas, the house’s two previous owners had financial issues, and the building “faced the wrong way,” and had disturbed natural winds. 

Some wondered if producer Raymond Chow had Lee killed because Chow didn't want to lose Lee to some Hollywood studio.

"Others say it was 'cannabis intoxication,' though there doesn’t tend to be a link between cannabis and brain edemas. The medical professionals who had treated him in May had warned him about hash. 'We told him that his very low percentage of body fat could make him vulnerable to drugs,' Dr. Peter Wu said in the book The Tao of Bruce Lee. 'Since he'd already had a very bad time with the drug, we told him that the effects were likely to be worse next time.'"~Rachel Chang 

It has been pointed out that the Chinese Triad gangs, who were heavily involved in the Hong Kong movie industry, killed Lee because he wouldn't pay protection money.

There is also something called the Lee Family Curse. Bruce's son Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed by a prop gun in 1993 while wrapping up filming on The Crow. Some investigation turned up that Bruce Lee’s older brother had also died under mysterious circumstances before Bruce Lee was born.

Then there was also a rumor that Bruce Lee’s death was caused by a prostitute. The rumor claimed that Lee was under the influence of a powerful aphrodisiac that made him violent and caused him to lose control. The prostitute then killed him in self-defense.

https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2021/07/help-mark-jones-stage-4-cancer-journey.html





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