YouTube star Kevin Samuels died from hypertension, medical examiner concludes

YouTube star Kevin Samuels died of hypertension, a Georgia medical examiner concluded.

Samuels, 53, died suddenly May 5 after he complained of chest pain and collapsed, authorities said. He was at his apartment and taken to a hospital but could not be resuscitated, they said.

Chief Medical Examiner Karen E. Sullivan's findings were reported Monday by E! News.

"It is my opinion that Kevin Samuels died due to hypertension (high blood pressure), Sullivan wrote in the report dated July 14.

The manner of death was ruled natural.

Samuels had 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube, where he often focused on dating and relationships. Critics often saw his opinions as attacks on women.

In an April video, he labeled women who are older than 35 and unmarried as "leftovers," prompting an online outcry. Other videos were used as platforms to rate women's appearances. Many have pointed out the misogynistic nature of his media.

His fans, however, have defended him as having a backbone in the era of cancel culture.

Shortly after his death, his mother, Beverly Samuels-Birch, lamented learning about her son's death through social media. "All I'm doing is requesting that people pray for us," she said at the time.

The chief examiner wrote that Samuels had thicker-than-normal heart chambers — specifically the left and right ventricles — a condition described by medical science as ventricular hypertrophy.

Toxicology testing found amiodarone, a drug used to treat abnormal heart rhythms, and atenolol, used to treat hypertension, in his system, the report states.

Black Americans suffer high levels of hypertension — an estimated 55 percent have it — compared both to other Americans and to people of African descent elsewhere in the world, researchers say.

A study of "Hypertension and Sudden Unexpected Deaths" published in 2019 focused on 477 deaths in Nigeria blamed on high blood pressure and its impacts and found the average age of the deceased was 52, with left ventricular heart failure as the most common cause of death.

The causes of hypertension in Black Americans are complex and likely include the impacts of racism and segregation, including limited access to medical care, medication, and healthy foods, medical researchers say.

Scientists have identified 17 variants of a gene associated with hypertension in Black Americans. However, more research is needed in order "to understand what the gene does and how variants may protect or predispose a person to high blood pressure," reads a statement on the 2019 study by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.