Andrew Breitbart died of heart failure, narrowing of artery, coroner finds
Conservative commentator and website editor Andrew Breitbart died of heart failure and had up to a 60% narrowing of a major artery, a Los Angeles County coroner’s office report released Wednesday said.
The office ruled that the cause of Breitbart’s death was heart failure and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with focal coronary atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
Coroner’s officials deemed the death “natural.”
Breitbart collapsed near his Westwood home March 1. He was 43. Paramedics found Breitbart unable to breath and shocked him with a defibrillator four times. He was in full arrest and paramedics were administering CPR when he arrived in the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The report noted that despite heroic efforts, Breitbart was declared dead at 12:19 a.m. In the report, authorities said that a year before, he had a congestive heart failure and began a course of diet and exercise. The report notes that Breitbart had flu two weeks before and “has been under a lot of stress.”
