Conspiracy theories abound regarding the unexpected death of comedian Bob Saget.
Theories have included: Saget died of COVID, he died from an adverse reaction to a COVID vaccine, he died from a heart attack, and he died after suffering a stroke.
Recently, speculators are suggesting foul play, owing to an Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office noting that Saget had slight head trama which “likely” contributed to his death.
The family has requested peace, space, and time to grieve. In an attempt to quell the mania, the family petitioned the court to block public access to Saget’s medical records and police investigation reports. A Florida judge granted that request on Tuesday.
CNN reports that Saget’s widow, Kelly Rizzo, and her three daughters filed a lawsuit against Orange County’s sheriff and the medical examiner’s office, requesting that records related to Bob’s death be sealed due to privacy concerns, and “because of their graphic nature in how they portray the late actor.”
The swirling misinformation has been disturbing to the family.
“Authorities originally speculated…which led to conspiracy theor[ies]…just [as there have been] with countless other high-profile figures,” Daily Dot reported last week.
Saget’s family hoped speculation would diminish after they summarized autopsy findings:
“The authorities have determined that Bob passed from head trauma,” Saget’s widow said in January. “They have concluded that he accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep. No drugs or alcohol were involved.”
However, some medical specialists say the injuries do not appear to be consistent with a simple fall.
“This is a significant trauma. This is something I find with someone with a baseball bat to the head or who has fallen from 20 or 30 feet,” said Gavin Britz, neurosurgery chief at Houston Methodist medical center, according to The New York Times.
In an interview with MSNBC, Dr. Jason Freeman, a neurologist and stroke expert as well as the former medical director at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. said:
“I think the autopsy report does raise a number of questions about the nature and extent of the injuries. If we typically see slip and falls that occur usually in the bathroom, someone hits the back of their head on the shower or the bathroom floor. These injuries described in detail in the autopsy report seem to go beyond that.”
“The degree of those fractures, especially the orbital and frontal bones, is typically seen with high impact traumas that you might see in a motor vehicle accident, blunt force trauma, and again, someone particularly falling from a height,” Freeman said.
Social media posts have fueled the conspiracy theories regarding Saget’s death.
“Hitting his head…? Or, Hit on the head??? The new question…” one person wrote on Twitter.
“Someone murdered bob saget [sic] with a bonk to the head,” wrote another.
Baseless theories can be hurtful—to Bob’s reputation and to the family. Some suggest Saget was a victim of heckler rage; others suggest Saget invited an altercation because of his sometimes confrontational comic stand-up style.
The Daily Wire notes that Saget’s family filed the lawsuit to keep further details of the comedian’s death confidential, saying making more findings from the autopsy public would cause “anguish.”
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