no career or drive to win the accolades is worth one’s health. An ambition or pursuit that diverts concern away from an unfolding, obvious, sudden medical deterioration is much too common. We all can relate to ignoring our health for the sake of not wimping out.

His achievements in the field of NASCAR are not diminished, but I find small comfort that the more than adequate resources of health care that he had were not applied when it would have mattered.

Has to be a lot of non-celebs affected also. Be safe.

...when his appendix burst in November 2023. He was in severe pain, but went ahead with the taping of that evening's show. It wasn't until after the show that his wife dragged him to the ER. Another hour later, he would have been dead.

I remember watching that episode, not realizing how ill he was.

I don't even think he was busy at the time.

at the time. He was only 53.

Cautionary tales for us all.

The ER did not check to see what type of pneumonia it was - they just sent me home on painkillers and anti-biotic. My RN husband came home from work, listened to my lungs (no sounds), and called my doctor to get a direct admission to the hospital. I was there for weeks...very close to death, had chest tubes. I had liquid in my lungs that was hardening. They told me it was what killed Jim Henson.

If it were not for my husband, I would have died in my bed. He passed in 2018 of cancer.

Grateful he was here to bring you to this point. My condolences on his death.

God rest his soul

I could not stop shaking. Rather than take Tylenol and go back to bed I went to the emergency room. I was diagnosed with pneumonia. There was no cough or breathing problems. I was given antibiotics and was sick in bed for three days.

At my follow up visit with my primary care I said to him I probably overreacted and didn’t need to go to the ER right away. He got noticeably angry with me and said I did the right thing by going right to the ER and that pneumonia is a.very serious illness.

They rejected me for that.

BUT they decided to check out WHY (to get me the right treatment).

Turned out it was pneumonia with "pleural effusion".

Got sent to the hospital to get drained and an antibiotic IV.

Took me a few months to get rescheduled for the procedure- in retrospect, the "correct" thing to do was phone in sick, but would the situation have gotten worse if I had?

I thought I just had Covid. She made me go to the ER. 3 Covid test were negative. Turns out I had sepsis. Caught very early and it may have saved my life. She is now my wife.
I didn’t find out until later how serious it was when my cardiologist explained it to me.

Why do you think listening to the heart and lungs is a basic step in medical triage? Sinus infections are also serious but more that it can spread into the head of lungs.

RIP

She never got it looked at.
A month or so later, it was still black and blue and she became ill. She said it got so bad that even her hair hurt.
She ended up in the hospital for a few days. It turned out she acquired sepsis due an internal ankle injury.

never have realized that could happen - wow!

He's awfully young to die this way. But some people who have had Covid a lot (vaccinated or not) can get some pretty gnarly lung issues. Gotta wonder.

I realize it's 2026 and nobody wants to talk about Covid anymore. But there are lasting effects from this virus. For some more than others.

That caused pneumonia. Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, viruses of fungus. We don't know what caused his...

Last edited Sun May 24, 2026, 04:58 AM - Edit history (1)

die every day because they are afraid they might get deported if they seek treatment or poor people that avoid treatment until an ambulance is taking them to a hospital for a treatable condition.

Let Kyle's death be a lesson to us all, including me, not to take a
"wait and see, attitude".

Rest in peace.

it was an "unprovoked" massive blood clot - later attributed to the new birth control I was on. I actually thought I was having a heart issue (I have arthritis) so I drove myself to the ER out of an abundance of caution. It's pretty wild when the ER doctor says "you are in critical condition and I'm sending you in an ambulance downtown" 😮 Eleven years later I am still on a blood thinner. I was extremely lucky.

Glad you're so lucky, TBF. ☮️💙🌈🌸🍀

and we did find a family connection - so perhaps I was one of those people who was more likely to form a clot (an aunt and cousin on the same side of the family clotted prior to me, but I didn't know). My doctors thought it was a "perfect storm" of a new med, an unknown family history, and having another auto-immune disorder. So, in my late 40s I became an expert on blood clots, something I previously knew nothing about.

I do feel for the driver's family, it's heartbreaking to have something like this happen.

I am not saying this is what he had but I had to be hospitalized for COVID pneumonia.

My oxygen levels were in the high 80s.

In my case, remdesivir worked.

I had MAGA family members who tried to get me to reject the drug because of something they read on the Internet.

Possibly COVID and pneumonia vaccinations help save my life until I could get medical care.

with someone like RFK Jr. in charge of HHS - not just woefully underprepared for the position, but with no desire to pay attention to modern medical science. I'm glad you were aware of the science and ignored the misinformed family members (I have those too, it is maddening).

Forever pneumonia shots have been available
for over a year.