San Francisco medical staff worked tirelessly for over four hours trying to save Cash App founder Bob Lee’s life — stapling his heart and placing a chest tube in him before he passed away on an operating table, autopsy records show.
Lee was visiting the city when he was stabbed three times early April 4 and left for dead. The 43-year-old divorced tech boss made a frantic 911 call just after 2:35 a.m. to seek help, before collapsing to the ground in front of a residential apartment.
Officers with the San Francisco Police Department and paramedics were on the scene by 2:40 a.m. administering CPR, although Lee was unconscious, “pulseless” and had labored breathing, according to a Medical Examiner/Investigator’s Report released late Monday.
Lee was raced to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was brought into the emergency room and medics swiftly began “massive transfusion protocol” before ER staff performed a thoracotomy — a large cut along the left side of the chest.
In doing so, they were able to see two injuries to Lee’s heart, which they stapled shut.
They began massaging his heart and gave him a dose of adrenaline before rushing him to the operating room.
Surgeons found Lee had suffered injuries to his heart’s right ventricle and his lungs. They placed chest tubes inside and continued working on him until 6:49 a.m., when they ultimately pronounced him dead, the report states.
Pathologist Dr. Ellen G. Moffatt performed an autopsy on April 5 and 6 and ultimately ruled Lee’s death a homicide caused by the multiple stab wounds.
An acquaintance, Nima Momeni, has since been charged with Lee’s murder and police said they recovered a kitchen knife used to stab him from the scene.
Lee had cocaine and ketamine in his system at the time of his death, as well as traces of alcohol and allergy medicine, according to postmortem medical tests.
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