Doctor: Hackman's Wife Died a Day After Police Say

Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, called a private clinic belonging to a former emergency care physician 24 hours after police say she died, reported the Daily Mail.

“Mrs. Hackman didn't die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12,” Dr. Josiah Child, owner of Cloudberry Health in Santa Fe, New Mexico, told the news outlet Sunday.

“She'd called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband. She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended Cloudberry to her. She made an appointment for herself for February 12. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory.”

Child said Arakawa canceled two days before her scheduled appointment, saying her husband was not well.

“She called back on the morning of February 12 and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon.

“We made her an appointment, but she never showed up. She did not show any symptoms of respiratory distress. The appointment wasn't for anything related to hantavirus. We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply.”

Denise Womack-Avila, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, told The New York Times on Monday that investigators analyzed Arakawa’s cellphone and found that Arakawa had made three phone calls on the morning of Feb. 12.

The state medical examiner concluded that Arakawa, 65, died from the effects of hantavirus, which is contracted through exposure to rodent excrement. 

They said Hackman, 95, died Feb. 18 of heart disease.

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