More Details On Condition of Brodie Lee Leading Up To Passing, Reportedly Needed A Lung Transplant

AEW star Brodie Lee passed away on the day after Christmas, but had been hospitalized for some time before that due to a lung issue. Tony Schiavone noted that Brodie was hospitalized the day after they recorded AEW Unrestricted, which was at the very end of October. As previously reported, Lee passed due to the same lung issue, which was not COVID-related as he had been tested multiple times leading up to his tragic death. The exact issue has not been revealed or isn’t clear, or both.

The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter has more details on his health leading up to that.

As his wife Amanda noted in a post on Instagram, AEW Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice President Megha Parekh, as well as the Khan family’s General Counsel, were able to get him to the Mayo Clinic. He was taken from the hospital in Tampa (where he and his family lived) via airlift to Jacksonville on October 31. Even at that time, the diagnosis was said to be “bleak” and the odds were “always strongly against him,” but they had hope the Mayo Clinic would help. Huber told key people that worked with him in the company on November 7, but asked them to keep it quiet. Her wishes were respected.

At the time, it was believed (and noted by Jim Ross on his Grilling JR podcast) that Lee would have needed a lung transplant, which meant he would have to get on the list, quality, get a donor and lungs that were fit for his size. Obviously, since he’s 6’5″ and 275, that would have been difficult. Had the transplant happened, he would have been immunocompromised and would have to take anti-rejection drugs. However, he was never healthy enough to quality once his condition was discovered.

According to the Observer, it was two straight months where those who knew about his condition “knew the end result was likely inevitable.”

Ross said during the 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.“