Singer and actor Darius Campbell Danesh had an unknown heart condition at the time of his death, according to his autopsy results. Darius, who starred in Pop Idol and had a hit with Colourblind, died after inhaling the drug chloroethane at the age of 41.
His girlfriend Lauren Cheek has now revealed the results of the autopsy into his death, which happened last August. She said the examination showed his heart had swelled to twice its normal size and the singer had a broken neck, a result of a 2010 car crash.
Lauren said: "Darius was living with this heart condition that he didn’t know he had."
Speaking to The Sun, she added: "So many things could have taken him, but this one thing did, and he died in his sleep. His mum told me they only found out after they did the autopsy.
"His heart was twice the size it was supposed to be, which was fitting, because that is genuinely how he was — he had so much love."
His autopsy discovered he also had a broken neck, which he never got checked out.
Lauren said he used the drug chloroethane for his pain as he didn't want to take any painkillers.
In September, autopsy documents obtained by the PA news agency listed "toxic effects of chloroethane" in addition to "suffocation" as having contributed to his death.
The death was ruled an accident by the medical examiner.
Chloroethane, commonly known as ethyl chloride, is used in petrol additives, plastics, dyes, pharmaceuticals, topical anaesthetics, and as an industrial refrigerant. Ethyl chloride became popular as an inhalant street drug in the 1980s.
Brief inhalations of the drug can result in dizziness, euphoria, confusion, incoordination, hallucinations, impairment of short-term memory and narcosis.
His family also released a statement to the PA news agency, saying: "The results of medical examinations have confirmed that Darius’s death was an accident caused by chloroethane, which is used to treat pain and that tragically lead to respiratory arrest.
"Darius was suffering from chronic neck pain following a car accident in 2010.
"We would like to thank everyone for their love and kindness, and ask that the family’s privacy is maintained during this difficult time."
The Scottish singer-songwriter and actor – who was known as Darius Danesh when he made his first bid for fame in ITV show Popstars in 2001 – also appeared on the first Pop Idol in 2002, finishing third behind Gareth Gates and eventual winner Will Young.
In 2010, Danesh Campbell spoke to Hello! magazine about the car crash in which he broke his neck.
The singer had been a passenger in a Porsche when it hit a wall at 70mph after skidding on oil during a holiday in Spain.
The Scottish singer-songwriter and actor – who was known as Darius Danesh when he made his first bid for fame in ITV show Popstars in 2001 – also appeared on the first Pop Idol, which was won by Will Young.
Fellow Pop Idol contestants Will Young and Gareth Gates paid tribute to him following his death, describing him as “driven, courageous and gentle”.
Music mogul Simon Cowell, who Danesh Campbell turned down for a record deal after his time on the talent show, also paid tribute to the singer, as did Hollywood actor Gerard Butler.
The pair were close friends and were pictured together in Malibu shortly before the singer’s death.
In his own tribute to Campbell Danesh, Butler wrote that he had a “barely containable zest for life” and the “heart of a lion”.
“To those lucky enough to have met Darius for more than a few minutes, they were deeply moved by his infectious laugh and barely containable zest for life,” he wrote.
“He was always armed with a smile, a booming voice, and a genuinely warm embrace that few could resist-nor would they want to!
“He was an incredible talent, a singer whose voice touched your soul and an actor with great presence.
“But, most importantly, he had the heart of a lion. It was bigger and brighter than the sun and an energy so contagious he could light up a room in seconds.”
Campbell Danesh’s debut single, Colourblind, was released in July 2002 and went straight to number one, marking the start of a run of top 10 releases.
Following his death the song re-entered music charts and several days later took the top spot on the iTunes download chart.
Campbell Danesh’s family said in a statement in August that he was “found unresponsive in bed in his apartment room in Rochester, Minnesota, on August 11 and was pronounced dead in the afternoon by the local medical examiners’ office”.
They added that local police had found “no signs of intent or suspicious circumstances”.
