Professional bodybuilder Rich Piana, 46, has been placed in a medically-induced coma after being found unconscious at his Florida home following a suspected steroid overdose.
Piana has a lengthy history of steroid abuse, and his use of steroids was well-known. Piana is active on social media, and has previously admitted to abusing anabolic steroids to boost his bodybuilding career.
Emergency officials in Florida received a call on Monday, August 7. When they arrived at Piana’s home, they found him unresponsive. He was transported to a nearby hospital where he was placed in a medically induced coma.
The reason behind Piana’s sudden hospitalization is still unclear. There has been no official statement about the reason for the coma. However, it’s widely suspected to be linked to steroid abuse.
The 911 call was originally made by Piana’s partner, Chanel Jansen, who reported that the former Mr. California winner had suffered a possible overdose.
On August 11, Jansen released a statement through Instagram:
“I just want to be clear [Piana] is STILL ALIVE. All myself and his family are asking for is POSITIVE thoughts, prayers, and love.”
Last year, Piana posted a video where he explained his struggles with steroid abuse. In a YouTube post, Piana admitted he was spending thousands of dollars a month on anabolic steroids in order to enhance his bodybuilding career and lifestyle.
Piana claims he has taken steroids on and off for the past 27 years. He was also careful to advise his followers against steroid abuse, although he ultimately backed up his personal decision to use steroids:
“If you have the choice to do steroids or stay natural, stay natural. There's no reason to do steroids, you're only hurting your body and hurting yourself,” Piana said in the YouTube video.
Nevertheless, Piana claims he wouldn’t change his own personal decision to use steroids, and described some of the rampant steroid usage in the bodybuilding community:
“But if you want to become a professional bodybuilder, guess what? You're probably going to have to f***ing do them, you're not going to have a choice. That's the boat I was in….I was getting to the point where I was getting blown off stage if I wasn’t going to do steroids, so I took that step. But you know what? I’m happy with everything I chose and happy with the way that everything went in my life and I would not have done anything different.”
Piana started taking steroids at the age of 18.
Source: Daily Mail.
