Blair River, the 575-pound spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill, an Arizona restaurant that serves shamelessly high-calorie burgers and fries, died Tuesday at the age of 29, following a bout of the flu. At 6 feet 8 inches tall, River garnered celebrity as the grill’s “Gentle Giant” when he became the face and advertising star of the medically themed restaurant — famous for its triple-bypass burgers, flatliner lard fries and server “nurses” donning uniforms fit for adult films. River came down with the flu last week, and after four days in the hospital, he succumbed to pneumonia, says Jon Basso, owner of the grill and close friend of River .Basso described River’s death as “tragic,” because he was a “young creative genius, a promising man whose life got cut short because he carried extra weight. Had he been thin, he would have had a tenfold opportunity to survive the pneumonia.” Though Basso goes by “Dr. Jon,” in line with the restaurant’s medical theme, he is not medically trained and so can’t speak to the role obesity might have played in River’s illness. The official cause of death for the hamburger model is still unknown. Medical professionals wouldn’t necessarily disagree with this link, however. “Obesity increases your risk for just about every condition, and it can make nearly every acute health problem worse,” says Keith Ayoob, director of the nutrition clinic at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Source
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Jesus Take The Wheel: 29 Year-Old “Heart Attack Grill” Spokesperson Dies Weighing 575 Lbs
