The Tragic Death Of Glenn Frey

Glenn Frey, a co-founder of the Eagles and a hit-maker in his own right, died on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67. Per the Eagles' website, which posted a message about his death at the time, Frey died due to "complications from Rheumatoid Arthritis, Acute Ulcerative Colitis and Pneumonia."

However, according to Frey's manager, Irving Azoff, the rheumatoid arthritis medications Frey was taking possibly contributed to his death. 

"The colitis and pneumonia were side effects from all the meds," Azoff told The Wrap shortly after Frey died. "He died from complications of ulcer and colitis after being treated with drugs for his rheumatoid arthritis which he had for over 15 years."

Frey's death followed several months in the hospital. According to Taste of Country, Frey was admitted to the hospital in November 2015 for stomach surgery and never left.  

"He was in a coma, and he'd come out, but then he couldn't breathe. They'd put him back into the coma. They were trying like hell to keep him alive ... [Eagles manager] Irving [Azoff] pulled every ace out of the hole — he had the eight best specialists working on Glenn," musician and longtime friend of Frey, Bob Seger, told Taste of Country.

Regardless of Azoff's claims, it's not clear whether Glenn Frey's death was complicated by the medications he took for rheumatoid arthritis.  

According to The Arthritis Foundation, "Arthritis experts not involved in Frey's care say it is unlikely that RA directly caused his death, or that the medications he took for RA somehow caused ulcerative colitis." 

However, they do report that certain types of inflammatory arthritis go hand-in-hand with bowel disease, so often the treatments for those afflictions overlap, and those medications can have "serious side effects," because they can suppress the immune response triggered by auto-immune disorders and "increase susceptibility to infections, including pneumonia," per the Arthritis Foundation. 

Frey's widow, Cindy Frey, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Dr. Steven Itzkowitz two years after Frey's death in January 2018. 

"As a result of the foregoing acts of negligence, Glenn Frey was rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled, suffered injuries, pain, mental anguish, was compelled to seek medical care and attention, incurred expenses thereof, and was permanently injured and disabled until the time of his death," court documents read, in part.

According to Nights with Alice Cooper, Cindy Frey is suing for $12 million in lost earnings she says were caused by multiple occasions of neglect from 2015 that led to Frey's untimely death. The lawsuit is ongoing, according to The Supreme Court of New York, County of New York.