Update I, 2:24 p.m. ET:

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I’m still on vacay, but I stopped in to update you on legendary rapper Heavy D’s cause of death. As we suspected, he died of blood clots in his lung that traveled from his legs (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT). This is the same clotting disorder that Tamar Braxton’s husband, Vince, was recently hospitalized with. I will update you if there are any further developments…

Originally posted on Nov. 11, 2011 @ 10:18 a.m.

According to the NY Daily News, rapper Heavy D saw a doctor the day before he died tragically at age 44.

Rap legend Heavy D knew something was seriously wrong with his health the day before he suddenly collapsed and died Tuesday, officials told the Daily News.

“He had gone to the doctor the day before,” Ed Winter, Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office, told the Daily News. “He had what appeared to be like flu-like symptoms.”

“He was taking medication, so we want to see what the levels were,” Winter said.

Heavy D, whose real name was Dwight Arrington Myers, had just gotten back from a trip to England. “He said he had a touch of pneumonia, maybe from traveling,” is cousin, Ruddy Phillips, told The News.

But Heavy D also could have died from a pulmonary embolism, a fatal consequence of sitting for prolonged periods of time during long distance travel. Pulmonary embolisms are often misdiagnosed as something else — such as pneumonia or cardiac arrest.

In fact, some attorneys base their entire practice around misdiagnosed pulmonary embolism cases.

According to the Daily News, an autopsy was completed Wednesday morning, but a preliminary cause of death won’t be released until toxicology tests are performed. The tests could take up to six weeks to complete.

Source: RWS