Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were both found dead on Wednesday, February 26, in circumstances that have since been called "suspicious" by authorities. Currently, no official cause of death has been revealed, pending further investigations. However, a cardiologist believes that Hackman's pacemaker would have reported if he had suffered from a heart-related emergency.
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Cardiologist Dr. Christopher Davis talked about this possibility with Fox News Digital. He went on to explain how the pacemaker records and monitors a patient's heart activity. This device, according to Mayo Clinic, keeps the heart from beating too slowly. Surgery is required to install it under the patient's skin.
"Depending on if the patient has a home monitor, these pacemakers can be monitored remotely as well," Davis told the outlet. "If they have a home monitor, there is an urgent event, that gets transmitted to the monitor and then to whatever pacemaker company's portal that then the information gets sent to the patient's physician if it's an urgent report."
David would go on and specify that certain urgent events are picked up by the pacemaker. The device could then report these directly through a portal, reaching a physical who could act accordingly and promptly.
"There's different degrees of an event," Davis added. "Some of these things could be a life-threatening event, and some of it could just be, say, a pacemaker battery only has a year left. So, it really varies."
Other lesser events that are not considered "urgent," are not reported but they are logged. A physician can review these events once the patient comes in for a pacemaker checkup.
Gene Hackman's Death Investigation
In Hackman's particular case, the last event recorded by his pacemaker dates to Monday, February 17. According to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, said date is believed to be the last day of Gene Hackman's life.
During a press conference held on Friday, February 28, Mendoza shared various details surrounding the deaths of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa. In particular, he revealed that both tested negative for carbon monoxide.
"One of the things is, in an investigation we try to piece the timeline together, usually before the event happens. That gives us a lot of information," Mendoza said. "But, in this case, it seems like we're doing a reverse timeline."
Police are currently investigating and analyzing data found inside both Hackman's and Arakawa's phones. This includes photos, messages, calls, and events. Police are currently uncertain whether Hackman and Arakawa passed at the same time or one after the other.
"You know, there's no indication that anyone was moving about the house or doing anything different, Mendoza said. So, it's very difficult to determine if they both passed at the same time or how close they passed together."
