Gene Hackman death investigation: Doctor claims Betsy 'didn't know how sick she was' in final days
Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa-Hackman - who was initially thought to have died on or around Feb. 11 due to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome - allegedly did not know the extent of her illness in her final days.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Josiah Child - a physician who oversees Cloudberry Health, the medical practice that Betsy called on Feb. 12 according to preliminary phone records - said the late classical pianist did not initially express symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
"[Betsy] had actually made an appointment to have an initial visit with one of our doctors on the 12th," Dr. Child said. "She called on the 10th saying that her husband was ill or wanted to take care of her husband. She wanted to cancel that appointment. She called back on the 12th and [looking for] advice. She said, ‘I have some congestion and I just want some advice. What can I do for it.?’ She had no shortness of breath or chest pain or fever or anything like that. Our receptionist spoke to the doctor and the doctor said, 'Well, I've never met her. We have to have an initial appointment.'"
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On Monday, the Santa Fe Sheriff's Department confirmed that Betsy's last cell phone activity was Feb. 12, the day after she was initially presumed to have died.
"We can now confirm that Mrs. Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of February 12 to call a medical center in Santa Fe, Cloudberry Health," the sheriff's department told Fox News Digital. "A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical center. One incoming call was made to Mrs. Hackman from the same medical center that afternoon."
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According to Dr. Child, the practice scheduled Betsy for a 1 p.m. appointment on Feb. 12 after she called that morning, but she never showed up. The practice then called Betsy, but there was no answer.
"If we had known the patient and known that they had a medical condition or something, then if we try and call them and they didn't call back, we would be more aggressive about finding out what's going on," said Dr. Child. "But in this case, I think, since the doctor had never seen the patient, it was unclear whether maybe she found another doctor or went somewhere else."
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"We assumed since she'd never come before that she'd gone somewhere else or maybe to her previous doctor," he added.
Dr. Child said it sounded like Betsy was "starting to feel ill" but was not fully aware of how sick she was actually becoming.
"I don't know whether it was because she was focusing on her husband or because it was a rapidly progressive disease, or she was just one of those people that didn't really feel a lot of discomfort. No one will ever know," he said. "But for some reason she didn't recognize that she was becoming very ill with the second phase of Hantavirus, which invades the lungs."
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"She just didn't know how sick she was becoming," he added.
Betsy died due to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is transmitted from animals to humans and is commonly found in rodents, the New Mexico Department of Health confirmed.
Hantavirus is characterized by "flu-like symptoms consisting of fever, muscle aches, cough, sometimes vomiting and diarrhea that can progress to shortness of breath and cardiac or heart failure and lung failure," Chief Medical Investigator Dr. Heather Jarrell explained during the news conference.
Hackman died due to hypertensive atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributing factor, New Mexico officials confirmed one week ago. He was likely alone in the home for about a week until he died around Feb. 18, which was the last time activity was recorded on his pacemaker.
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On Monday, the Hackman estate was awarded a temporary restraining order against the release of records regarding the deaths of Gene and Betsy.
The order stated the "Office of the Medical Investigator and the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, including each entities' agents, assigns, and employees are hereby temporarily restrained from disclosing through IPRA or other means, any and all photographs or videos containing images of the following: the body of Gene Hackman, the body of Betsy Arakawa-Hackman, the interior of Mr. and Mrs. Hackman's residence."
Additionally, "any lapel video footage," including the Hackmans' bodies or footage of "images of any deceased animals at the Hackman residence," was added to the temporary restraining order.
The Office of the Medical Investigator was temporarily restrained from disclosing the autopsy and/or death reports, according to the order. A hearing was set for March 31.
Fox News Digital's Tracy Wright contributed to this report.