Garap died of heart attack

WORLD Muay Thai champion, the late Lee Henry Garap, died earlier this month of a massive heart attack, according to his family.
Dr Jambi Garap, Lee’s aunty, said yesterday that an autopsy conducted on the 40-year-old by Funeral Home found that he was born with an absent left coronary artery.
She said the family and the father-of-two himself never knew about the defect until after his passing when the autopsy was conducted.
“Had he been aware of the defect, and had there been defibrillator present, he could have been saved by the device, which would have normalised the rhythm of his heart beat and put him out of shock,” she said.
“These facts were unknown in the initial stages of his attack, and all attempts to bring him back afterwards had failed.”
On Dec 15, at around 12.45pm, Garap experienced chest pains while he was at the Holliday Inn gym.
He called his mother, Samariti, to pick him up and he collapsed soon after she had arrived.
“Lee was rushed to the Port Moresby General Hospital emergency department where they attempted to resuscitate him for 40 minutes,” Dr Jambi said.
“He was pronounced dead at 2pm that afternoon from a massive heart attack.
“Due to much speculation from the public about the cause of his death, his family decided collectively that it would be in everyone’s best interest to conduct a post-mortem.
“The autopsy was conducted at Erima Funeral Home on Dec 21.
“The findings indicated that Lee was born with an absent left coronary artery.
“This is a rare birth defect as everyone is born with two coronary arteries, one on the left and one on the right which supply blood to the muscles of the heart.
“Lee survived 40 years on only the right coronary artery and an abnormal or malformed left coronary artery.”
Dr Jambi said Lee lived a healthy lifestyle and he didn’t have any pre-existing medical conditions that could have caused the discovery of the defect while he was alive.
She said the details of Lee’s final journey would be announced via social media at a later date.
Funeral programme: Thurs, Dec 30 — Funeral Service at the Mari Mari Lutheran Church (11am). The casket will be taken to family residence at Dikagari Street, Tokarara (2pm). The casket returns to Funeral Home (6pm); Fri, Dec 31 – Rausim hauskrai (2pm-5pm); Sat, Jan 1 – The casket will be taken to Chimbu via Mt Hagen. From Kagamuga Airport, the casket will be taken to the family residence at Kindeng, Jiwaka, to overnight.