Gene Hackman’s pacemaker would have alerted his physician if an “urgent” event occurred, according to cardiologist Dr. Christopher Davis.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, Davis explained that some patients have a home monitor that allows events to be picked up on their pacemakers remotely.
“Depending on if the patient has a home monitor, these pacemakers can be monitored remotely as well. If they have a home monitor, if there is an urgent event, that gets transmitted to the monitor and then to whatever pacemaker company’s portal that then the information gets sent to the patient’s physician if it’s an urgent report,” Davis of Reveal Vitality said.
“There are certain things that are set up as urgent, and those get reported through the pacemaker portal to the patient’s physician,” he added.
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According to the Mayo Clinic, a pacemaker is “a small, battery-powered device that prevents the heart from beating too slowly. You need surgery to get a pacemaker. The device is placed under the skin near the collarbone.”
During a news conference Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the last event noted on Hackman’s pacemaker was Feb. 17.
When asked if Feb. 17 — nine days before his body was found — could be the day Hackman died, Mendoza noted that was a “very good assumption.”
“According to the pathologist, I think that is a very good assumption that that was his last day of life,” Mendoza said. He also confirmed after a discussion with the medical examiner that Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, “tested negative for carbon monoxide.”
“The manner and cause of death has not been determined,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza noted that detectives will analyze “cellphone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cellphone to try to piece the timeline together.”
“One of the things is, in an investigation we try to piece the timeline together, usually before the event happens, and that gives us a lot of information,” Mendoza said. “But, in this case, it seems like we’re doing a reverse timeline.
WATCH: Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza gives insight into Gene Hackman’s likely ‘last day of life’
“We’re doing a timeline from the time of death and the autopsy and the results. We’re going to start working our way backwards. We’re going to do both and then hopefully make a determination as to what may have happened to both of the individuals.”
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Hackman and Arakawa were last publicly photographed together March 28, 2024. Hackman was spotted holding onto his wife’s arm. He held onto a walking cane in his other hand. Arakawa looked out in the distance and held up her arm to support her husband.
Davis explained that there are “different degrees” when it comes to pacemaker events.
“There’s different degrees of an event. Some of these things could be a life-threatening event, and some of it could just be, say, a pacemaker battery only has a year left. So, it really varies,” he said.
Davis said events not considered “emergent” would not be reported to the pacemaker company immediately. They are recorded, but it would be picked up during a three-month or six-month pacemaker checkup.
The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office released a search warrant inventory Friday of the items collected from Hackman and his wife’s home after their deaths, Fox News Digital learned.
In the documents, obtained by Fox News Digital, investigators list two cellphones, MyQuest records, a 2025 planner, thyroid medication, blood pressure medication and Tylenol as the items they collected from the home.
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Sheriff Mendoza and Santa Fe Fire Chief Brian Moya shared more information about the ongoing investigation with “Today,” saying Hackman and Arakawa may have been dead “up to a couple of weeks.”
“Just based on their bodies and other evidence on the body, it appears several days and possibly up to a couple weeks,” Mendoza said when asked when the couple died.
When asked whether Hackman and his wife died simultaneously or whether one died before the other, the sheriff replied, “I think that’s very difficult to determine. I think it’s going to be pretty close.
“You know, there’s no indication that anyone was moving about the house or doing anything different. So, it’s very difficult to determine if they both passed at the same time or how close they passed together. We’re trying to put that information together and, obviously, with the assistance of the office of the medical investigator, I think the autopsy report is going to be the key to this investigation.
“We’re trying to put things together, a timeline when the decedents were last spoken to. Of course, we understand that is a challenge because they were very private individuals and a private family. So, we’re trying to put all that information together right now.”
The Oscar-winning actor was found dead along with his wife, a classical pianist, and one of their dogs in their sprawling Santa Fe, New Mexico, home Wednesday afternoon.
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The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department revealed that autopsies have been completed on both Hackman and his wife. No external trauma was seen on either the actor or the musician.
Carbon monoxide and toxicology tests were ordered for Hackman and his wife because the manner and cause of death have not been determined.
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.
