Charlbi Dean’s cause of death has been revealed after the South African actor and model succumbed to a sudden illness in August.
The 32-year-old died of bacterial sepsis, the New York City Medical Examiner’s office told People on Wednesday. The sepsis “was a complication of asplenia” — or the absence of the spleen — an office spokesman said. Dean’s death was ruled an accident.
Doctors removed the actor’s spleen in 2009 after a car accident that also broke his back and several ribs.
Before he died, Dean was infected with a bacteria called Capnocytophaga, People wrote. Such germs are commonly found in the mouths of humans, dogs and cats, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, they can cause infections in people with weakened immune systems, including those who have had their spleens removed.
Shortly after Dean’s death, his brother Alex Jacobs told Rolling Stone that the actor was in New York with his fiance when she started having “minor” symptoms and went to the emergency room. She died a few hours later, she said.
“This literally happened over the course of a day. She gave me a headache, I was sleeping, she woke up her boyfriend and said please take me to the hospital,” Jacobs said in August, adding that waiting for the results. determine the cause. of his illness.
Dean has several film credits and most recently starred in Triangle of Sadness, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or, earlier this year.
His resume also included the 2016 thriller “Blood in the Water,” the 2017 horror film “Don’t Sleep,” and the 2018 drama “An Interview With God.”
Dean began modeling at the age of 14, appearing in photoshoots for brands such as Guess, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and United Colors of Benetton, as well as on the cover of Vogue.
