UPDATE: Boyzone Singer, Stephen Gately, Died Of Acute Pulmonary Edema

Ireland’s Rising Star: A short bio on Boyzone’s Stephen Gately.
When we first announced the death of openly gay 33-year-old Irish Boyzone singer, Stephen Gately, tabloids soon announced that he choked to death of his own vomit and that his husband, Andy Cowles had tried to resuscitate him upon discovering his dead body.
However, an autopsy report has found that Gately died of “natural causes”. ABC News has more:

An autopsy on Boyzone singer Stephen Gately revealed that he died due to excess fluid in his lungs, a court spokeswoman on the Spanish island of Majorca said Tuesday.

“He died a natural death of acute pulmonary edema” which had nothing to do with any consumption of alcohol or drugs, the spokeswoman in the Majorcan capital of Palma, said.

A pulmonary edema can be due to either the failure of the heart to remove fluid from the lungs or direct damage to the lung tissue.

We’ve been covering this story since it broke and are happy to hear that the initial tabloid recounts of death by drinking were inaccurate. Pulmonary edema’s extremely rare for someone as young as Gately, but hopefully the news will help his husband who felt that Stephen might still be alive if only he had checked on him.