The Hospital and Death

The following events occurred at New York Hospital:

Warhol arrived at the hospital on Friday, February 20, 1987. He was escorted by a tall, young man, Ken Leland. The nurse who admitted Warhol into the hospital was named Barbara. Warhol registered under the name 'Bob Robert.'

Surgery was performed the next day, Saturday, February 21st, from 8:45 am to 12:10 pm (EST). The surgery involved a standard procedure, and there were no complications during the surgery.

After the surgery, Warhol spent 3 hours in a recovery room. At 3:45 pm, he was taken to a private room. The private room was located on the 12th floor of Baker Pavilion. He watched television during the evening; and around 9:30 pm, he called his housekeeper, Paige Powell, at his eastside house.

Min Chou, a private nurse, was assigned to watch Warhol. She said she was reading the Bible while watching him. It is thought that Min Chou was not at Warhol's bedside during the entire night because his vital signs had not been recorded at regular intervals.

At 10 pm on February 21st and at 4 am on February 22nd, Warhol's blood pressure was recorded as 'stable.'

It is believed that no one was monitoring Warhol between midnight to 5:45 am. It is also thought that the few notes on his medical chart between this time period were entered after his death including the 4 am blood pressure record.

At 5:45 am, Warhol turned blue and his pulse had weakened. Min Chou could not wake him, and she called for assistance. The hospital staff tried for 45 minutes to resuscitate him. They even tried to insert a tube down his wind pipe but had difficulty because rigor mortis had started.

At 6:31 am on February 22, 1987, Andy Warhol was pronounced dead.

At noon, approximately 5 ½ hours later, CNN broke the news to the world. [Note: Warhol's picture had been used in a collage to introduce "The Hollywood Minute" on CNN's Headline News which was aired every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. The day after his death, the picture was removed.]

Alexander Iolas, who had sponsored Warhol's first and last art exhibit, died a few months later (June, 1987) at the same hospital.