Overview
- Emergency crews responded to a cardiac-arrest call at Graham’s Washington home and he was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after collapsing Saturday night.
- The District of Columbia chief medical examiner’s preliminary finding identifies an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease as the immediate cause of death.
- Officials completed an autopsy over the weekend but have held the official death certificate until toxicology and microscopic tests are finished.
- An aortic dissection is a tear in the inner layer of the aorta that can let blood split the artery wall and cause rapid organ loss or fatal rupture; Type A tears near the heart usually require emergency open surgery while Type B tears may be managed with medicines or stents.
- Doctors say the condition most often strikes men in their 60s and 70s and is linked to long‑term high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, smoking and some genetic disorders, so experts urge blood‑pressure control, family history screening, and prompt imaging for sudden severe chest or back pain.