LOS ANGELES--Bobby Darin, the brash and ambitious singer who wanted to be a legend at 25, is dead at 37.
Darin died December 20th at Cedars Of Lebanon Hospital of heart failure, in the course of his second open-heart surgery in two years. Darin, a victim of rheumatic fever three times as a child, had apparently recovered from the first operation when he contracted a blood disease months ago.
"It was senseless that he died,"said David Gershenson, a friend of Darin's since 1958."It goes back to some dental work. Anyone who's had open-heart surgery or rheumatic fever --with dental work you have to have massive antibotics to fight infection. For some reason the dentist didn't give him the antibotics, and he got septicemia--an infection of the bloodstream attached to his heart."
During the 1971 surgery, Darin had two heart valves replaced and now, with septicemia, his heart was pumping out of rhythm, he was having difficulty breathing and he began losing weight.Over eight months, he visited doctors regularly and was hospitalized for six weeks last spring.
Finally, suffering from what Gershenson called "general malaise and lack of functioning", Darin went to the hospital December 19th. After some eight hours of surgery, the singer's heart gave way. His niece and two friends were at the hospital at the time.Darin is survived by two former wives- Sandra Dee , with whom he had a son , Dodd now 12, and Andrea Yeager,whom he married only last June.They were divorced in November.
There were no services for Darin,he had directed that his body be donated to the medical school of UCLA.
bobbydarin.net/bobbydarin.com, All Rights Reserved.