As you all know by now, AEW Superstar Brodie Lee tragically passed away over a week ago due to a non-COVID related lung issue at the age of 41. Brodie was flown to the hospital the day after he was interviewed for an episode of AEW Unrestricted with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards.
In a report by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, we now have more details on what had happened to Brodie Lee during his final days. As his widow Amanda Huber posted on her Instagram page, Brodie Lee was flown to the Mayo Clinic and airlifted to Jacksonville on Halloween (October 31st). His diagnosis was very bleak at best, with the odds being stacked against him. Amanda then told key people within’ AEW about Brodie’s diagnosis and they swore to keep the news strictly to themselves.
Jim Ross had noted on his “Grilling JR” podcast with Conrad Thompson that Brodie would eventually get a double lung transplant, be put on the list, get a donor and find lungs that would be a perfect fit for a man his size. This task would be a bit difficult considering he was 6’5″ and weighed around 275lbs. The people who know that Brodie was in bad shape felt the chances he would kick out and survive were likely very slim.
JR noted on his podcast: “All I know is he had double lung failure. His lungs were so bad that he couldn’t qualify for a transplant, so after, as I heard the story, whether it’s totally accurate or not I don’t know, that they took him off his machine to see if he could kick out himself as that’s about the only chance he had. It just obviously didn’t work, so a sad time for all of us. Again, he impacted so many of us on our roster that kind of went off the radar and so he’ll be very missed.“
