More Details On Brodie Lee's Condition Before His Passing
The late Brodie Lee would have needed a lung transplant to overcome his lung condition, reported Dave Meltzer in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Lee never got healthy enough after getting sick to qualify for the operation. Jim Ross noted on the Grilling JR podcast that Lee had double lung failure, and that he heard that Lee couldn't qualify for a transplant. If Lee were able to get the transplant, The Observer noted that he would need to get on a list for the transplant, qualify, and then get a donor with the lungs needed for a man his size, which would have been a challenge with him being 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds. If he got the transplant, he would have then had to have lived his life "heavily immunocompromised and take a lot of anti-rejection drugs".
The Observer noted that Huber was first hospitalized in Tampa when his lungs stopped working. The reason that they stopped working still isn't fully known.
AEW Chief Legal Officer Megha Parekh made phone calls to get Lee transferred from the hospital to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville on Saturday, October 31st.
"On Saturday October 31st Megha made phone calls and made the transfer happen," Lee's wife, Amanda Huber, wrote on Instagram. "I thought my whole world was collapsing around me and she held up the walls. I had never met her or even heard of her up to that point. She helped in any way possible.
"She was the first person I broke down in front of when all of this happened. I'm not a big cryer, it's just never been who I am. Something about Megha makes me feel safe. It was a simple hug and I lost it. It's been a running joke that she's an emotional weighted blanket.
"I spent Thanksgiving with her, so I didn't have to have dinner alone in my hotel. We sat on the beach and talked about things that weren't my sick husband. We ate sushi for dinner and I cried some more."
Amanda added that Lee's transfer from the hospital to the Mayo Clinic was the reason that they had "a fighting chance".
Before he got sick, Lee was tested at every AEW show he was at. Lee was also tested more than a dozen times for COVID-19 at the Mayo Clinic, with every test coming up negative. Lee was also tested for antibodies to check if he might have had it in the past.
Amanda informed the company on November 7th about Lee's condition and asked everyone to keep it quiet. Lee did not want the information out and Amanda said she didn't want rumors to spread. People in AEW knew for two straight months that the end result was likely inevitable.
Ross said that the story he heard is that Lee was eventually taken off his machine at the Mayo Clinic to see if he "could kick out himself", as that was his only remaining chance. Lee passed away on December 26th, ten days after his 41st birthday.
Lee's last public interview was on the AEW Unrestricted podcast that was released on November 2nd. Tony Schiavone noted on the What Happened When podcast that the interview was recorded the day before Lee got sick.