Darren Shahlavi
By Mike Leeder
On January 14th 2015, a very good friend, British actor and martial arts hero, Darren Shahlavi, passed away and left behind a legacy of work and great memories with so many people.
Unfortunately, the tabloid press, led by scum like TMZ – and sadly followed by various magazines, newspapers, websites and far too many “oh we know it all” internet trolls implied it was by a drug overdose. They were all happy to make unfounded statements that severely hurt his family, his friends and his memory.
Darren’s family recently received a coroner’s report from the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner, and would like to share the results with his friends, colleagues and fans.
Darren died on January 14, 2015 of natural causes: a sudden and fatal heart attack. He was found to have Atherosclerosis (also known as arteriosclerotic vascular disease or ASVD) His left anterior descending artery was 95% blocked, which must have been worsening for several years.
Darren had no drugs or medications in his body, and only 0.02% BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration); to put this into context 0.08% is the BAC Driving Limit for both he US & UK. There are no other medical factors linked to his death.
It seems unlikely that someone as fit as Darren – who was so dedicated to exercise and fitness and had such a healthy low fat/dairy diet – should have heart disease, but we have been told that a genetic predisposition resulted in the development of heart disease and is not uncommon in otherwise healthy young men, including athletes and other professional sportsmen and women*.
Evidence for Darren’s level of physical fitness at the time of his death can be seen in his recent work. Darren had just finished filming Pound of Flesh and Kickboxer: Vengeance, both with Jean-Claude Van Damme – not to mention Tomorrowland with George Clooney. He was, as far as physical fitness goes, at the top of his game.
Darren’s family is devastated that his underlying heart condition was never diagnosed to allow him the opportunity of treatment. Typically, Atherosclerosis begins in childhood, and Darren showed no apparent symptoms prior to death. Who would have thought that Darren who was regarded as very fit would die so suddenly as a result of this ‘silent killer’!
We have all been in shock for the past 11 weeks with so many unanswered questions, but would now like to focus on the lessons that can be learned from Darren’s untimely death. We do feel that Darren would be the first to join us in sending warnings and advice to the friends and colleagues that he loved that regular health screening can save lives.
This is our message and we do hope that somehow positive publicity in Darren’s name can be made available to other young men and women, that may help them to take seriously the possibility that their body holds terrible secrets that can be revealed if they are tested routinely throughout life.
We hope that no other family has to go through the grief and pain that we are experiencing and that their loved ones get screening and subsequent treatment if necessary, that could prevent the tragic outcome that all who loved Darren are trying to come to terms with.
The Shahlavi family is raising funds to build a permanent memorial to Darren in Hollywood. Click here for more information.
This is a bogus article. The logic is all twisted. if an artery is 95%, it is obvious that in the case of ASVD plaque was building up in an artery, that doesn’t happen overnight for one. Another hidden point to reveal is that when an artery is blocked 50%, there are definite symptoms and signs the body will give to the person that blood flow is abnormal. To say the actor/athlete died of natural causes it is too innocent of a claim, because his level of fitness would be extremely sensitive to a semi-blocked artery at very mostt when it was 20% or less. So somewhere in this martial artist’s personal lifestyle, there is some negligence that caused his death. In turn this mistake can be always be trurned into entertaining dirt by the media and paparazzi. So don’t blame TMZ, its their job/way of living to be scum. If you want to negate poor claims, use better logic that actually makes sense.
Hi Mike,
It’s sad that an article like this is needed but I’m glad you posted it. I’m sorry he passed away so young.
I think he was one of the best martial arts performers around in the last 15 or 20 years. At least he left behind some great martial arts films which means he’ll never truly die. I shall be purchasing the new Kickboxer film as soon as it’s legally available in the UK.
to anon. Are you a doctor who specialises in this condition? Judging by your assertions I doubt it. A simple google search can put them in place. Just fyi, here is a copy of the symptoms taken from wiki:
Atherosclerosis is asymptomatic for decades because the arteries enlarge at all plaque locations, thus there is no effect on blood flow. Even most plaque ruptures do not produce symptoms until enough narrowing or closure of an artery, due to clots, occurs. Signs and symptoms only occur after severe narrowing or closure impedes blood flow to different organs enough to induce symptoms. Most of the time, patients realize that they have the disease only when they experience other cardiovascular disorders such as stroke or heart attack.
So as you can see, the condition is normally asymptomatic until something very serious happens. This is obviously what has happened in Darren’s case and I think the fact that you are trying to imply otherwise is quite offensive to his memory.
RIP Darren