Just over a month before police found him dead in his car in Frisco, Texas, Michael Rigsby, a beloved 26-year-old musician for The Bridge Frisco, was warned by a doctor that if he didn’t see a cardiologist within two days, he could die, according to his mother, Kim Cooks.
Frisco police told The Dallas Morning News that Rigsby was found dead at 9 a.m. on June 23 and confirmed he was the same person Irving police reported missing about 8 p.m. on June 22.
Cooks told The Christian Post in an interview Thursday that she found a May 18 medical referral for her son to see a heart specialist.
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“I found a paper where he was referred to a cardiologist, but I don’t know if he went. I don’t know if he even went to see the cardiologist. I have very limited information,” Cooks said, noting she was not aware her son had a serious issue with his heart prior to his death.
“I just got the paper as they were cleaning out his vehicle. I never knew until the day he passed,” said Cooks, who lives in Texarkana, located about three hours away from Frisco.
As far as she knows, Cooks says it doesn’t appear that Rigsby, who is the youngest of her three children, had shared his health issues with close family or friends. She said she gave the letter she found in her son’s car to the medical examiner reviewing her son’s death.
Officials have not yet publicly confirmed Rigsby’s cause of death and did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CP on Thursday, but Cooks said police told her that no foul play was involved in her son’s passing.
“All I know is that he went to sleep and didn’t wake up,” she told CP.
“They (police) said they didn’t see any signs of foul play, but I have to wait for the full autopsy to come back. They just told me it looked like he fell asleep and didn’t wake up. He was in a sleeping position,” she said.
Cooks told CP that her son normally plays music at The Free Man Cajun Café and Lounge in Dallas on Saturdays. He had completed a gig there on June 21 and reportedly dropped off some friends before returning to Frisco, where he parked outside an apartment complex he previously lived at, located near The Bridge Frisco, formerly The Potter’s House of North Dallas.
She said he had planned to move back to the apartment complex but had been living between her home and his godmother’s home at the time of his death. Police say Rigsby’s body was found at a location in Frisco, WFAA reported.
The grieving mother explained that because her son had to be at church early on Sunday morning, it wouldn’t have made sense for him to drive home to Texarkana after his gig at The Freeman. She said it was normal for him to nap in his car before church after his Saturday night gigs.
“He was trying to take a nap. He had an hour to take a nap before he had to be at church,” she told CP.
Cooks says she wishes her son had told her about the warning his doctor had given him. She said that while the referral he got on May 18 did not state a particular diagnosis, it clearly indicated that if he did not follow up with a cardiologist, he was at risk of dying.
“They didn’t put any [diagnosis] on there. They just put that he needed to see a cardiologist within two days, and then they put the risk if he didn’t. But they didn’t put a prognosis or anything on there,” she told CP.
When asked why she believes her son didn’t reach out to anyone for help, Cooks said she believes he was probably afraid.
“It may have scared him if they told him [about a heart condition]. Because on the paper it said the No. 1 risk was death,” she said. “Knowing him, if they told him something like that, he didn’t take it too [well]. He wouldn’t tell me because he never wants to see me hurt, as his mom.”
Cooks said the last time she saw her son alive was on June 16.
“He told me he loved me [and] he would see me later. He gave me kisses and hugged me really tight,” she recalled.
Shortly after his death was confirmed, The Bridge Frisco said in a statement that they were sad to lose a “faithful and consistent” part of their band.
“We are saddened to share the unexpected passing of Michael Rigsby (@@__mik3music), a faithful and consistent part of our band. His presence behind the keys was part of the sound that filled our sanctuary and helped create space for worship each week,” the megachurch said. “Our church has supported his family during this time of searching for answers, and we ask that you continue to lift them — and all who were connected to him — in your prayers. He will be deeply missed.”
In A Closer Look at African American Men and High Blood Pressure Control, a report first published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010, researchers pointed to heart disease and stroke as being the first and third leading causes of death and major causes of disability in the U.S. The report also highlights that black men, like Rigsby, disproportionately make up those numbers.
In the 2017 report Perspective: Cardiovascular Disease among Young African American Males, Marino Bruce, research associate professor of medicine, health and society at Vanderbilt University, along with his team, explained what they saw as the “emerging chronic disease crisis.”
“Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of premature death among middle-aged African American males, who as youth have a higher prevalence of CVD risk factors leading to accelerated rate of disease progression, and a higher rate of age-related complications than other groups of males,” they wrote. “CVD can have long latency periods with some processes beginning in youth.”
While noting that there was limited data on the cardiovascular disease risk among black American males, Bruce and his team highlighted hypertension and obesity as prominent features in the health profiles of young black men.
“Hypertension, a known risk factor for CVD, is a salient condition for young African American males as it has been found that college-aged African American males are twice as likely to have hypertension than their white peers,” the researchers said.
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey also showed that black American adolescent males comprised the largest segment of extremely obese 12- to 19-year-old males.
“It has been estimated that 75% of the incidence in hypertension can be directly attributed to obesity, and current evidence suggests that the poor health prospects of African American males are likely to worsen in the coming years,” researchers noted.
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