Examiner – Dodgers star Fernando Valenzuela died of septic shock

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fernando Valenzuela, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching ace who helped the team win the 1981 World Series, died of septic shock last month, according to his death certificate.

TMZ first obtained the document on Tuesday. Valenzuela died on October 22 at age 63, a few weeks after leaving his job with the Dodgers’ Spanish-language television broadcast and a few days before the Dodgers began their run to the team’s eighth World Series championship. A cause of death was not given at the time.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office listed the immediate cause of death as septic shock. This is a life-threatening disease that occurs when organs fail and leads to dangerously low blood pressure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 350,000 people die from the disease each year in the United States.

The medical examiner cited decompensated alcoholic cirrhosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis cirrhosis as the underlying causes. Also listed as a significant condition contributing to Valenzuela’s death was “probable” Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rapidly progressive brain disorder.

The document also shows that Valenzuela was cremated. A public mass was held last week at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.