WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson passed away at the age of 79 this past Wednesday morning. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has reported new details on Patterson’s condition leading up to his passing, noting that he had also suffered from dementia in recent years.
Patterson attended the funeral for WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson earlier this year and it was said that others were saddened by his behavior as the dementia had gotten bad by that point. Regarding his fight with cancer, Patterson first contracted bladder cancer several years ago and he was recently said to be in bad shape, as he had moved to an assisted living arrangement.
Patterson generally spent his summers in his native Montreal, and then spent his winters in Hallandale, Florida, but with the COVID-19 pandemic and his memory fading, he was “pretty much confined” to his place in South Florida.
Patterson remained close with former WWE Superstar Sylvain Grenier, who met Patterson shortly after his own father died. Patterson became like a father figure to Grenier and the two were so close that Grenier had power-of-attorney for Patterson. WWE announced back in January of this year that Grenier had returned to work for the company as a producer. Grenier went to visit Patterson last month in Florida and was concerned after noticing he had lost around 60 pounds. Grenier got Patterson to the hospital and a tumor on his lung was discovered. Patterson had been scheduled for a biopsy on Friday, December 4 to see if the tumor was cancerous, but that never happened as he passed away on Wednesday morning.
Patterson was rushed to a South Beach, Miami hospital on Friday, November 27 after he suffered a blood clot in his liver. The tumor had also began to spread. Shortly after that, Grenier, who had went back home to Montreal, was told to come back to Florida if he wanted to see Patterson again. However, Patterson was said to be “out of it” by the time Grenier got back to Florida. Grenier stayed to be with Patterson but due to the pandemic he wasn’t allowed to spend much time in the hospital.
Patterson passed away in the South Beach hospital at around 1:15am on Wednesday, December 2, officially due to liver failure. It was noted that there is a very good chance that he had cancer, which led to other problems.
Bertrand Hebert, who was close to Patterson and wrote his “Accepted” autobiography back in 2016, told The Observer that Patterson loved his life.
“Four years ago he told me he had a great life and had done everything he dreamt of as a kid sleeping in the closet and more,” Hebert said. “He was ready to go whenever he would get called up. He had loved his life.”
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