Gene Hackman's Wife Betsy Arakawa Died From Rare Lung Illness Caused By Rodent-Borne Virus

In a sad twist after the death of the Hollywood great and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, a newly-released autopsy report has unveiled the secret health crisis that allegedly led to Arakawa's own tragic demise. Arakawa had been diagnosed with a dangerous buildup of fluid in her chest, a condition associated with the rare but deadly hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, according to government findings released on April 29.

Betsy Arakawa, 65, was found dead inside the couple's Santa Fe, New Mexico home, where she and Hackman, 95, were both found unresponsive. Although the hearing of their death first came with shock to the show business industry, the details that now come to light provided by Arakawa's autopsy will paint a new picture of an undiagnosed and fast-progressing disease.

A medical examiner determined Monday that Arakawa had tested negative for COVID-19 and the flu and showed no obvious external signs of trauma or carbon monoxide poisoning. However, the internal signs, especially the fluid buildup in her lungs, caused the biggest alarms to sound. The diagnosis was hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a rare, rodent-borne respiratory illness contracted through contact with infected rodents or their droppings.

HPS is rare, and 122 cases have been reported in New Mexico from 1993 to 2022. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorizes it as a serious and frequently fatal disease in which the lungs fill with fluid and breathing problems become severe. Arakawa's illness sheds light on how the disease can evolve in subtle and largely undetectable ways, at first showing signs that could easily be mistaken for spurts of flu before rapidly ballooning.

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It states that investigators had previously noticed evidence of both live and dead rodents strewn throughout the couple's sprawling property, which includes three garages, two casitas, three sheds, and their main home. Although no direct evidence of rodent activity was apparent within the rodents' main residence, nests and feces observed throughout the outbuildings represented an obvious hantavirus exposure threat.

The results indicate that Arakawa may have been unaware of her dire situation. Friends and family members suspect she may have been downplaying her symptoms, even as she cared for her sick husband, who had developed late-stage cancer until she took ill herself. Her turn as the loving wife of Hackman, who was later ruled to have died from natural causes of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, made her the silent sufferer, which tragically delayed her from getting medical assistance in the nick of time.

Experts stress the rarity of hantavirus infections but note that the threat emerges in the sudden onset and non-specific early symptoms. Without intervention, HPS can evolve over a matter of days to a devastating state of respiratory failure. For Arakawa, the fluid in her lungs, medically known as pulmonary edema, proved deadly before a definite diagnosis could be reached.

With the deaths of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa comes the close of three decades of aesthetically and philosophically matched companionship marked by privacy, loyalty, and quiet strength. As increasingly emerges about the health crisis Arakawa had no idea was striking, her story is a stark reminder that even the most esoteric diseases can fall off the world's radar, especially in the last place you'd imagine them.

Health authorities keep warning that the public should take precautions when visiting rodent-infested areas, particularly in rural locations where such encounters are more probable. For now, Arakawa's end of life leaves behind not only a testament to her quiet courage but also a public health lesson in vigilance and early detection.