Re: ANGEL actor Andy Hallett passes away
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Originally Posted by Nicholas Martin
Not long after the series ended, there was a 'get well Andy' gathering of well wishes for him after he was hospitalized with an undisclosed illness. This must have been the illness, as that was indeed five years ago.
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Whedonesque fans posted some information; it appears to have been a tooth that became infected, which as you probably know can take an infection straight to the heart (infective endocarditis) which causes swelling of the heart, in his case to the point of leaking and damaging everything (advanced cardiomyopathy is what he described it as in an interview). Basically he got dealt a bad hand, a really bad hand -- a heart transplant or meds and supervision were likely his choices. His only realization of the cause was after the fact - he recalled a filling had fallen out, but it didn't bother him at the time. Chances are the filling fell out because the tooth had already started to decay, or, conversely, after the filling fell out, the tooth may have quickly become infected. Either way, he became quite fatigued soon after, and that makeup artist noticed, and took him to the hospital.
I knew someone who had infective endocarditis but it was caught early enough that they were able to cure her (with weeks in hospital) before it did too much damage, in fact she still jogs and such, so, really, not much damage at all because it was fought in time. And it was caused, similarly, by an infected tooth/gum, the infection carried to the heart.
