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The Strange Medical Saga of Elvis Presley
Front page headlines on the day Elvis Presley died showed the deep feelings so many had for the first and only “King” of Rock ‘n Roll. His early death at a young age was a shock. Not even 24 hours had passed after his death before the controversies started around the cause of his death. Did he really die of a heart attack as stated by the county coroner, or was his death a drug over-dose? Heart or drugs; what actually killed him? What were Elvis Presley’s health issues that plagued him during his short life? Why was he in so much pain? Why the early death? His full medical saga has only recently begun to be thoroughly examined. After all these years people still want to know what happened to the “King.” Three years after his death, I served as the major expert defense witness for Elvis’ doctor, Dr. George C. Nichopolous. The District Attorney of Shelby County originally wanted to charge him with murder/manslaughter for “intentionally prescribing to harm Elvis Presley,” but the charges were changed to “prescribing without a legitimate medical purpose.” The jury promptly acquitted him, but I was left with many questions about what exactly was physically wrong with Elvis. The question of “was it heart or was it drugs” remained unanswered. In the years since his death, medical research has advanced to the point that we have new insights regarding his underling health problems and untimely death. Many of the mysteries of Elvis’ life and death, which I hope to unveil in this book, can now be answered. I am in the unique position of being the only physician in the country who still has Elvis’ full medical records from the trial. With expertise in internal medicine, addiction, and pain medicine along with having personally known his physicians, I am in a unique position to help uncover his mysterious medical saga. My hope is to shed some light on his health issues, and hopefully, with the help of medical science and common sense, solve the mystery of what really happened to Elvis! Forest Tennant
233 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 22, 2021
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January 27, 2022When Elvis Presley first hit the music scene during the 1950s, he was both beloved and vilified for the hip-thrusting, leg-shaking and gyrating that changed the art form of musical performance forever.
But what many don’t realize is that Presley’s ability to do those iconic dance moves came with a cost and may have actually contributed to his sudden death in 1977 at the age of 42.
In a new book entitled “The Strange Medical Saga of Elvis Presley,” Dr. Forest Tennant, a retired physician who specialized in pain medicine and addiction treatment, explores the fascinating medical history of Elvis.
Turns out, it wasn’t all those peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches that killed him. But what did?
I recently had a chance to interview Tennant about his latest book and what really caused Elvis’ death.
Donna Gregory Burch: When I think about Elvis’ death, I recall the rumors that he died while taking a bowel movement on the toilet and that his autopsy revealed a very full colon. Are either of those stories actually true?
Forest Tennant: Yes, they are. We knew about these events [surrounding his death], but we had no scientific or medical explanation as to why they occurred. Fifty years after he dies, we finally have a scientific explanation as to why he died like he did.
What happened to him and why he died so suddenly in the bathroom was … a medical controversy that … ended up in a criminal trial and with all kinds of emotionalism.
Nothing happened to Elvis Presley that we don't have a good logical, scientific explanation for now. But certainly back in those days we didn't.
You were involved in a court proceeding about Elvis’ death. Could you tell me about that and what role you served during the lawsuit?
Well, what happened was that because he died suddenly and because the pathologists couldn't agree on why he died, and because Elvis was found to be abusing drugs as well as being prescribed a lot of drugs, a criminal trial was brought against his physician (Dr. George Nichopoulos).
The attorney that decided to defend (Nichopoulos) was a man by the name of James Neal, who was a federal prosecutor who prosecuted Jimmy Hoffa and the offenders in the Watergate scandal, and so he was the nation's top attorney at that time. He investigated the case and found out that the doctor that treated Elvis Presley was not a criminal at all and was doing his best to help him.
Some dozen physicians at the Baptist hospital in Memphis saw Elvis Presley, but nobody knew what was the matter with him. They knew he had some kind of mysterious, systemic disease, which is a disease that can affect multiple organs at the same time.
He was a baffling medical case for the doctors in Memphis at that time, and we didn't know what he had up until about three or four years ago. We did not understand the genetic collagen connective tissue disorders, now usually referred to by doctors as Ehlers Danlos syndrome (EDS). Nobody understood that his glaucoma and his colon [issues] were connected [due to EDS]. They knew it was connected somehow but they didn't have an explanation for it at that time.
What do we know today about why Elvis died that we could not explain back when he actually passed away?
He had a severe heart problem.
Elvis’ heart problem was directly tied to his diet, right? I mean he was well-known for his fat and sugar-laden diet.
Yes, his diet was part of it, but his autoimmunity also affected his heart.
But the major controversy of the day is one that's maybe a little hard for the public to understand. A drug overdose in 1977 was said to only occur if the lungs filled up with fluid. He had no fluid in his lungs, so the only thing that he had at his autopsy of any significance was a huge heart. And so the pathologist and the county medical examiner said he had to have died of a heart attack because his heart was so bad.
The catch was that he had about 11 drugs in his bloodstream. The highest level was codeine, so there became a dispute among the doctors. A certain group of pathologists who were highly qualified said he died of a heart problem. Another group of highly qualified physicians who were called forensic pathologists said no, he died of his drugs. Up until about two or three or four years ago, the argument was still going on.
Now, I hate to say thanks to the opioid crisis, but because of the overdose deaths that have occurred in recent years, a lot of studies have been done, and enzymes have been discovered, and metabolism has been discovered showing that drugs like codeine can cause a certain heart stoppage without having pulmonary edema (fluid filling the lungs].
It turns out that 24 hours before he died, a dentist gave him codeine. He was already thought to be allergic to it anyway, and that was because he had all these metabolic defects due to his genetics, and so the codeine built up in his system. He had this terrible heart, so he died suddenly, within seconds, as he was trying to sit on the commode. He fell forward.
There is a forensic pathologist, the best one of the day, called Dr. Joseph Davis, and in about 1997, he described exactly, second by second, what happened to Elvis in the bathroom. But the cause is pretty clear: He took the codeine, and it caused a cardiac arrhythmia. If he had a good heart, he might have survived, but he had a bad heart.
So, it’s really a combination. You had these two sides of doctors arguing – they even ended up in a criminal trial – but it turns out that they were both right. It was a combination of a terrible heart and a drug that causes cardiac arrhythmia, and that's why he died with no pulmonary edema.
But what many don’t realize is that Presley’s ability to do those iconic dance moves came with a cost and may have actually contributed to his sudden death in 1977 at the age of 42.
In a new book entitled “The Strange Medical Saga of Elvis Presley,” Dr. Forest Tennant, a retired physician who specialized in pain medicine and addiction treatment, explores the fascinating medical history of Elvis.
Turns out, it wasn’t all those peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches that killed him. But what did?
I recently had a chance to interview Tennant about his latest book and what really caused Elvis’ death.
Donna Gregory Burch: When I think about Elvis’ death, I recall the rumors that he died while taking a bowel movement on the toilet and that his autopsy revealed a very full colon. Are either of those stories actually true?
Forest Tennant: Yes, they are. We knew about these events [surrounding his death], but we had no scientific or medical explanation as to why they occurred. Fifty years after he dies, we finally have a scientific explanation as to why he died like he did.
What happened to him and why he died so suddenly in the bathroom was … a medical controversy that … ended up in a criminal trial and with all kinds of emotionalism.
Nothing happened to Elvis Presley that we don't have a good logical, scientific explanation for now. But certainly back in those days we didn't.
You were involved in a court proceeding about Elvis’ death. Could you tell me about that and what role you served during the lawsuit?
Well, what happened was that because he died suddenly and because the pathologists couldn't agree on why he died, and because Elvis was found to be abusing drugs as well as being prescribed a lot of drugs, a criminal trial was brought against his physician (Dr. George Nichopoulos).
The attorney that decided to defend (Nichopoulos) was a man by the name of James Neal, who was a federal prosecutor who prosecuted Jimmy Hoffa and the offenders in the Watergate scandal, and so he was the nation's top attorney at that time. He investigated the case and found out that the doctor that treated Elvis Presley was not a criminal at all and was doing his best to help him.
Some dozen physicians at the Baptist hospital in Memphis saw Elvis Presley, but nobody knew what was the matter with him. They knew he had some kind of mysterious, systemic disease, which is a disease that can affect multiple organs at the same time.
He was a baffling medical case for the doctors in Memphis at that time, and we didn't know what he had up until about three or four years ago. We did not understand the genetic collagen connective tissue disorders, now usually referred to by doctors as Ehlers Danlos syndrome (EDS). Nobody understood that his glaucoma and his colon [issues] were connected [due to EDS]. They knew it was connected somehow but they didn't have an explanation for it at that time.
What do we know today about why Elvis died that we could not explain back when he actually passed away?
He had a severe heart problem.
Elvis’ heart problem was directly tied to his diet, right? I mean he was well-known for his fat and sugar-laden diet.
Yes, his diet was part of it, but his autoimmunity also affected his heart.
But the major controversy of the day is one that's maybe a little hard for the public to understand. A drug overdose in 1977 was said to only occur if the lungs filled up with fluid. He had no fluid in his lungs, so the only thing that he had at his autopsy of any significance was a huge heart. And so the pathologist and the county medical examiner said he had to have died of a heart attack because his heart was so bad.
The catch was that he had about 11 drugs in his bloodstream. The highest level was codeine, so there became a dispute among the doctors. A certain group of pathologists who were highly qualified said he died of a heart problem. Another group of highly qualified physicians who were called forensic pathologists said no, he died of his drugs. Up until about two or three or four years ago, the argument was still going on.
Now, I hate to say thanks to the opioid crisis, but because of the overdose deaths that have occurred in recent years, a lot of studies have been done, and enzymes have been discovered, and metabolism has been discovered showing that drugs like codeine can cause a certain heart stoppage without having pulmonary edema (fluid filling the lungs].
It turns out that 24 hours before he died, a dentist gave him codeine. He was already thought to be allergic to it anyway, and that was because he had all these metabolic defects due to his genetics, and so the codeine built up in his system. He had this terrible heart, so he died suddenly, within seconds, as he was trying to sit on the commode. He fell forward.
There is a forensic pathologist, the best one of the day, called Dr. Joseph Davis, and in about 1997, he described exactly, second by second, what happened to Elvis in the bathroom. But the cause is pretty clear: He took the codeine, and it caused a cardiac arrhythmia. If he had a good heart, he might have survived, but he had a bad heart.
So, it’s really a combination. You had these two sides of doctors arguing – they even ended up in a criminal trial – but it turns out that they were both right. It was a combination of a terrible heart and a drug that causes cardiac arrhythmia, and that's why he died with no pulmonary edema.
January 16, 2023
Very interesting. When I learned about this book when it was released last year, I knew as someone with hEDS, this was a book I had to read.
While research and understanding has come a long way since Elvis’ passing and even since my own diagnosis, I hope this book sheds a light and more understanding on the reality that those with chronic pain and multi systemic diseases face in their every day lives.
While research and understanding has come a long way since Elvis’ passing and even since my own diagnosis, I hope this book sheds a light and more understanding on the reality that those with chronic pain and multi systemic diseases face in their every day lives.
December 17, 2021
Makes Complete Sense
Drug overdose alone never felt right to me. Now as an adult and RN this confirms the feeling I had prior to becoming a medical professional.
Drug overdose alone never felt right to me. Now as an adult and RN this confirms the feeling I had prior to becoming a medical professional.
October 1, 2022
Interesting
Too repetitive of many facts. Some errors in book. Once lists date of death of Elvis as August 6, 1977, probably a typo but a significant date and proof reading is crucial. Also a picture of an Elvis impersonator was used in between two pictures of Elvis to show his flexible joints. The impersonator picture is easily recognized as Leo Days and while his performances are very good the inclusion of him showing flexible joints with Elvis's pictures is just sloppy! Shows no attention to detail. Read Destined to Die Young.....it is a much better read.
Too repetitive of many facts. Some errors in book. Once lists date of death of Elvis as August 6, 1977, probably a typo but a significant date and proof reading is crucial. Also a picture of an Elvis impersonator was used in between two pictures of Elvis to show his flexible joints. The impersonator picture is easily recognized as Leo Days and while his performances are very good the inclusion of him showing flexible joints with Elvis's pictures is just sloppy! Shows no attention to detail. Read Destined to Die Young.....it is a much better read.
October 10, 2022
Interesting
This book explains in normal language about the health problems of Elvis . An easy and very interesting read. Highly recommended for alk Elvis Presley fans.
This book explains in normal language about the health problems of Elvis . An easy and very interesting read. Highly recommended for alk Elvis Presley fans.
October 6, 2023
An honest book about Elvis Presley’s medical condition
I don’t know what I expected from this book but I really enjoyed reading it!
So many so-called medical experts (and non-medical) have written books about Elvis’s medical problems! They have their heads up their rear ends!!
I truly don’t know how Elvis could have performed at his concerts with”how I’ll he was!! After reading this book, I hope future readers come to the same conclusions I did! Enjoy this book! Remember to keep an open mind!1
I don’t know what I expected from this book but I really enjoyed reading it!
So many so-called medical experts (and non-medical) have written books about Elvis’s medical problems! They have their heads up their rear ends!!
I truly don’t know how Elvis could have performed at his concerts with”how I’ll he was!! After reading this book, I hope future readers come to the same conclusions I did! Enjoy this book! Remember to keep an open mind!1
September 29, 2025
This is a book that explains so much
Oh, Elvis. You suffered for so long. Too long. I hope, when the time came, you found peace. No one deserved it more.
Oh, Elvis. You suffered for so long. Too long. I hope, when the time came, you found peace. No one deserved it more.
December 17, 2024
I had no idea that Elvis was such an unhealthy man. This book was an eye opener
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews