Beloved ‘ER’ Actor Dies at 55

Actor Dearon “Deezer D” Thompson, best known for his role as Nurse Malik McGrath on the iconic NBC medical drama ER, has died. He was 55.

Thompson’s brother, Emmery, confirmed the death in an Instagram post on Friday. Along with several pictures, he wrote, “My Big Brother! God is with you. I will miss you. #deezerd.”

No additional information about his death was immediately available. A rep could not be reached. According to one report, his brother said Thompson was found unresponsive at his Los Angeles home on Thursday, and family suspects he may have suffered a heart attack, but that is not official from the medical examiner.

Thompson had a long list of credits on his résumé, including the films Bringing Down the House, CB4, as well as the 1997 film Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion alongside Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino.

In 2009, Thompson revealed he was undergoing heart surgery after suffering “over 10 episodes of heart failure in the last eight months alone.”

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Wow. While one or two episodes can have catastrophic effects on not only the body, but brain function, Thompson had a total of ten!

But Thompson is not alone. According to a new study, about 1 in 100 black men and women could develop heart failure before age 50—a strikingly higher rate than for white people.

The African American community as a whole is at a much higher risk for heart failure (HF) in part because high blood pressure (BP) and diabetes are more common in African Americans than in other ethnic groups.

Both of these conditions affect the way your

heart works and how blood flows in your body. Some scientists suspect that low levels of nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, may also play a role.

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The American Heart Association estimates that by 2030, there will be a nearly 30% increase from 2012 in the number of African Americans diagnosed with HF.

Overall, nearly 9 million people in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with HF by 2030.9

While anyone can be affected by HF, it hits the African American community the hardest:

• HF has a more aggressive natural history in African Americans—people are younger and sicker at diagnosis compared with whites
• African Americans are 20 times more likely to develop HF before the age of 50 than whites
• African Americans are approximately twice as likely to die of HF than whites
• African Americans are hospitalized for HF more frequently and at a younger age than whites
• African Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 are almost 3X more likely than whites to have a dangerous amount of fluid buildup that can cause severe breathing problems

In addition, a decade before developing heart failure, they were more likely to already have systolic dysfunction, an impairment in the heart muscle’s ability to contract. Heart attack, drug use and alcohol use were not associated with the risk of heart failure.

Thompson told RadarOnline, “I have a heart valve that is leaking and the aorta had expanded to way beyond what it is supposed to be. As soon as the doctor identified what was going on, he put me in here,” he said then. “I am so grateful that my doctor found it in time.”