Hulk Hogan’s shocking death is now raising questions of medical malpractice.
TMZ Sports reported that an occupational therapist who was with the 71-year-old wrestling legend at the time of his passing on July 24 told Clearwater Police that a surgeon had “severed” Hogan’s phrenic nerve during a recent operation.
That nerve, according to the Cleveland Clinic, controls the diaphragm and is essential for breathing.
The claim was included in a police report tied to the department’s 911 response at Hogan’s Florida home. His daughter, Brooke Hogan, confirmed the report, telling TMZ that her father did not clutch his chest as if suffering a heart attack but instead “simply stopped breathing.” It was his wife, Sky Daily, who first noticed.
Brooke has long questioned the official ruling of cardiac arrest, especially after documents also cited leukemia.
“We don’t have cancer that runs in our family,” she said on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show. “The leukemia out of nowhere hits me as BS.” She later added, “I don’t think anyone thinks there’s foul play suspected, but the man had a very complicated medical history.”
Hogan was laid to rest on August 5, though Brooke, who had a strained relationship with her father, did not attend the funeral.