Alan Thicke did hear televised comments about blood pressure and heart concerns months before his death, but they were made during a session with television medium Tyler Henry—not by a medical professional. Thicke’s widow later said he had a physical and received a clean bill of health. Contemporary reports attributed his death to a ruptured aorta, with one outlet specifying a Stanford type A aortic dissection. The reporting does not establish that the fatal condition was diagnosed in advance or that his death was preventable.
What Tyler Henry said to Alan Thicke
E! reported that Thicke’s recorded session with Tyler Henry took place on August 31, 2016, for the television program Hollywood Medium. In the segment, Henry said he wanted to discuss health and family, then spoke about blood pressure and heart concerns among the men in Thicke’s family.
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As quoted by E! in its May 25, 2017 report, Henry said: “For the men in your family it’s really good to just take into consideration that blood pressure is going to be something that we really have to keep in mind.” He urged Thicke to be proactive. This was a television reading, not a clinical assessment or a diagnosis of a particular condition. E! News, May 25, 2017.
What Tanya Thicke said about his checkup
In an E! interview published May 23, 2017, Tanya Thicke said her husband went for a full physical about two months after the session and received a “full clean bill of health.” She also said they had no family history that would have prompted doctors to look for the condition. Those are her recollections in the interview; the report does not present a medical record independently confirming the checkup or its findings.
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Tanya recalled that Henry had emphasized the heart, saying: “The fact that he touched on the heart and kind of kept emphasizing that…my husband went in for a checkup two months later and he had a full clean bill of health.” Her account describes the sequence as she understood it; it does not show that a clinician evaluated or ruled out an aortic dissection at that visit. E! News, May 23, 2017.
What reports say caused Alan Thicke’s death
Thicke collapsed while playing hockey on December 13, 2016. ABC News reported that the Los Angeles County coroner identified a ruptured aorta as the cause of death. ABC News, December 21, 2016.
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Entertainment Tonight reported on December 21, 2016, that a death certificate it had obtained listed a ruptured aorta and a Stanford type A aortic dissection. ET also reported that the certificate gave three hours as the interval from dissection onset to death. That interval is a case-specific detail reported from the certificate, not a general statistic about the condition. The certificate itself is not reproduced in the reporting cited here. Entertainment Tonight, December 21, 2016.
What the reporting does—and does not—establish
The accounts come from different kinds of sources: E!’s coverage of a television segment, Tanya Thicke’s retrospective interview, ABC News’s report of the coroner’s finding, and ET’s account of a death certificate. They establish that the televised comments preceded Thicke’s death, that his widow later described a subsequent physical, and that contemporary outlets reported a fatal ruptured aorta, with ET specifying a type A dissection.
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They do not establish that Henry identified an aortic dissection, that Thicke’s doctors knew he had one, or that anyone could have predicted or prevented his death. Calling the segment a “health warning” should therefore be understood as headline framing for Henry’s televised comments about blood pressure and heart concerns—not as evidence of a medical warning or missed diagnosis.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where to verify Los Angeles County records
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner explains that its case search covers cases handled by that department, but online information is not the complete report or death certificate and case details may not always appear. The department also says it does not issue death certificates and directs people seeking them to vital-records authorities. No case-specific county record is cited here.
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- Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner: Case Search
- Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner: FAQs
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