Bodybuilder Rich Piana died Friday, nearly three weeks after being placed in a medically induced coma following a medical emergency. He was 46.
The District Six Medical Examiner in Florida confirmed Piana's death, TMZ reported. He was rushed to a Florida hospital Aug. 7 after collapsing while getting a haircut.
The former Mr. California's estranged wife, Sara Piana, posted about his death on Facebook.
Police found more than 20 bottles of steroids at his apartment at the time of his collapse, TMZ reported. His girlfriend, Chanel Jansen, said he hit his head during the fall.
Piana was a steroid user for more than 25 years, but spoke out about the dangers of the drugs on YouTube.
“If you have the choice to stay natural or do steroids, stay natural. There’s no reason to do steroids, you’re only hurting your body, you’re hurting yourself,” he said on YouTube last year, while acknowledging that for professional bobybuilders steroids were unavoidable.
Piana began bodybuilding at age 15, Men's Health reported. He won many fitness competitions, including Mr. California with an overall perfect score in 1998.
He was outspoken on social media, with 1.2 million Instagram followers and almost 960,000 subscribers on YouTube, the magazine noted.
Piana was remembered on Twitter.
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