Hulk Hogan (Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports)
A prominent plastic surgeon has given his take on the numerous health issues that WWE legend Hulk Hogan may have experienced before his untimely passing.
Last Thursday, Hulk Hogan died at the age of 71 after suffering cardiac arrest at his home in Clearwater, Florida. Medical personnel spent 30 minutes trying to revive Hogan at his house before taking him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
There have been conflicting reports about Hogan’s health since his tragic death. His wife, Sky Daily, said in an Instagram post that Hogan “had been dealing with some health issues, but I truly believed we would overcome them.”
Additionally, a source close to the Hogan family told Steve Helling of the Daily Mail that the WWE Hall of Famer had a “weak heart,” and suffered “from shortness of breath, got tired easily, had lost a lot of weight and was on oxygen” before his death.
Dr. Dan Diaco, a prominent plastic surgeon in Tampa Bay, appeared on Bubba the Love Sponge’s radio program and opined that post-surgery troubles led to more health problems that ultimately caused Hulk Hogan’s death.
Diaco thinks that Hogan experienced “failure” in the internal fixation during his spine fusion procedure. Diaco believes the WWE icon was “doing too much”, that it caused stress on the screws in his body and led to them breaking.
“Once that happened, he now required urgent revision surgery. And revision surgery never goes as smoothly as the first operation, especially three to four weeks later…So now you’re fixing a house instead of building a house…
Everything goes a little bit more slowly, everything bleeds a little bit more…everything’s a little more swollen. Everything’s a little harder. And somehow, during that procedure, he had a complication.”
Dr. Diaco suggested it could have been traction on Hulk Hogan’s vagus nerve, a nicked esophagus, or potentially “a nicked artery that caused excessive bleeding.” Diaco also speculated that Hogan may have had a nerve injury to his diaphragm that may have affected his ability to breathe.
Hogan was survived by Sky Daily and his two children, Brooke and Nick, whom he had with his first wife, Linda.
Hulk Hogan Had Numerous Health Issues In His Post-Wrestling Life
Hulk Hogan (Credit: Mateo Rosiles/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Last year, Hogan told Logan Paul that he had undergone about 25 surgeries in the previous decade, including 10 back procedures. Hogan also required replacement surgeries on both his knees and hips.