Dead Pool 9th June 2024

A busy week for deaths! With the sad passing of rugby player Rob Burrow, I can award 109   points to Christine, Paula, Mark, Paul C, and me, and a whopping 209 points to Julia for having him as her Cert. I can also award 49 points to Gwenan who correctly guessed that Janis Paige would pass away this year. 

Well done everyone, especially me as I am now embarrassingly at the top of the Leader Board, I’m not cheating, honestly!!!  

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Erich Anderson, 67, American actor (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Bat*21,), oesophageal cancer. 
• Harry van Hoof, 81, Dutch conductor (“Ding-a-dong”, “I See a Star”), composer (“How Do You Do”). 
• Rob Burrow, 41, English rugby league player (Leeds Rhinos, Yorkshire, national team), complications from motor neurone disease. 
• Jeannette Charles, 96, British actress (National Lampoon’s European Vacation, The Naked Gun, Austin Powers in Goldmember).  
• Colin Gibb, 70, British musician (Black Lace). 
• Janis Paige, 101, American actress (Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, The Pajama Game, It’s Always Jan). 
• Morrie Markoff, 110, American blogger, writer, and supercentenarian. 
• William Russell, 99, English actor (Doctor Who, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, The Great Escape). 
• C.Gambino, 26, Swedish rapper, shot.  
• Nicholas Ball, 78, English actor (EastEnders, Footballers’ Wives, Hazell). 
• William Anders, 90, American astronaut (Apollo 8, author of the photograph Earthrise) and diplomat, ambassador to Norway, plane crash. 
• Michael Mosley, 67, British television journalist and writer. 

In Other News

Singer Halsey has indicated she has been struggling with the autoimmune disease lupus in a cryptic social media post. The 29-year-old declared she was “lucky to be alive” in the Instagram post and said she had written an album about her secret health struggles. “Long story short, I’m lucky to be alive. Short story long, I wrote an album,” she said on Tuesday night. “It begins with The End. Out now.” she said before tagging Lupus Research Alliance and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs, causing inflammation. Along with the announcement she shared a series of photos summarising her health journey. In the first clip, she was seen rubbing her legs as she told the camera, “Seriously … I feel like an old lady. I told myself I’m giving myself two more years to be sick. At 30 I’m having a rebirth, I’m not going to be sick and I’m going to look super hot and have lots of energy and I’m going to get to redo my 20s in my 30s.” 

Kevin Campbell is ‘very unwell’ in hospital as Arsenal and Everton both provided an update on their former player following news of his ill health. It emerged on Sunday that Campbell had been reportedly ‘rushed to hospital’ with former footballers Ray Parlour and Trevor Sinclair offering public support. The 54-year-old won a number of major trophies at Arsenal having progressed through the Hale End academy during his 10-year stint at the north London club. Campbell recently fell ill and while his current condition remains unknown, his former clubs Arsenal and Everton have confirmed that he is ‘very unwell’. ‘Everyone at the club is sending love to Kevin Campbell and his family, following news that our former striker is very unwell,’ Arsenal said in a statement on Monday. ‘We’re thinking of you.’ Campbell played a total of 209 games for Arsenal between 1985 and 1995, producing 55 goals and 20 assists. He is also well known for his successful spell at Everton, where he scored 50 times and provided eight assist across 160 appearances.

On This Day

• 1930 – A Chicago Tribune reporter, Jake Lingle, is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone.
• 1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.
• 1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Deaths

• 68 – Nero, Roman emperor (b. 37).
• 1870 – Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (b. 1812).
• 1958 – Robert Donat, English actor (b. 1905).
• 2013 – Iain Banks, Scottish author (b. 1954). 
• 2014 – Rik Mayall, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1958). 
• 2017 – Adam West, American actor (b. 1928).

Dead & Alive

A woman in Nebraska who was mistaken for dead at a nursing home and later found to be alive at a funeral home has now really died, authorities have confirmed.

Constance Glantz, 74, was declared dead at a nursing home near the state capital of Lincoln on Monday.

Staff at a local funeral home that she was then brought to noticed about two hours later that she was still breathing. They quickly performed CPR on her.

Ms Glantz was quickly taken to hospital, but officials said that she was later declared dead – for a second time – soon after.

Police are now investigating the incident, but they said there is no evidence of criminal intent by the nursing home.

“This is a very unusual case,” Chief Deputy Ben Houchin from the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said at a press briefing on Monday.

“Been doing this 31 years, and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before.”

A coroner was not sent to the nursing home after it declared her dead because Ms Glantz had been placed in hospice care, and the circumstances did not fall within a coroner’s remit, Mr Houchin told reporters.

Ms Glantz’s death had been anticipated, he explained.

Additionally, “a physician had seen her in the last seven days, and the physician was willing to sign the death certificate, and… there was nothing suspicious at the time of the death”.

On Tuesday at around 16:00 local time she was pronounced dead for a second time, Mr Houchin later told reporters.

He added that a post-mortem examination had been scheduled later on Tuesday, and that results could take up to 12 weeks.

“The funeral home did absolutely nothing wrong,” Mr Houchin added. “They are the ones who found that she was still alive.”

Mr Houchin did not name the homes at the centre of the mishap.

Reporters also contacted the funeral parlour named in local media – Butherus, Maser and Love Funeral Home – which said in a statement: “We are proud that our directors and staff handled the recent incident in the news appropriately and with upmost care.”

Ms Glantz is not the only person to be pronounced dead only to reveal themselves as still being alive.

In June last year, 76-year-old Bella Montoya in Ecuador was declared dead following a suspected stroke, placed in a coffin and taken to a funeral parlour for a vigil ahead of her burial. Five hours later, she was found to be alive after the coffin was opened to change her clothes. She did, however, die days later.

In 2018, a South African woman who was initially declared dead following a road accident was discovered alive in a mortuary fridge.

Dr Stephen Hughes, a senior lecturer in medicine at Anglia Ruskin University’s School of Medicine in Chelmsford, has said that such cases are rare, but that “death is a process”.

“Sometimes somebody may look like they’re dead but they’re not quite dead,” Dr Hughes told the Flying Monkeys  after the incident in Ecuador. “Careful examination is necessary.”

Dr Hughes added that doctors would often look for heart sounds or breathing effort for at least a minute before declaring someone dead, and that some drugs could also slow down body processes, giving someone the false appearance of having passed away.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Johnny Depp (61), Natalie Portman (43), Eddie Marsan (56), Michael J. Fox (63), Griffin Dunne (69), Kanye West (47), Colin Baker (81), Liam Neeson (72), Karl Urban (52), Anna Torv (45), Bill Hader (46), Michael Cera (36), Helen Baxendale (54), Bear Grylls (50), Mark Ryan (68), Paul Giamatti (57), Jason Isaacs (61), Robert Englund (77), Josie Lawrence (65), Mark Wahlberg (53), Mel Giedroyc (56), Angelina Jolie (49), Bruce Dern (88), Sean Pertwee (60), Noah Wyle (53), Russell Brand (49), Bradley Walsh (64), Imogen Poots (35), Michelle Keegan (37), James Purefoy (60), and Suzi Quatro (74).