The transcript below is from the video “The Final Hours Of Bruce Lee’s Life“ by Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel): 

“Hey everybody, it’s Beerdy here.  What’s going on guys?  Okay, so today we’re going to look at the last hours of Bruce Lee’s life here on planet Earth – what really happened?  Okay, so that day Bruce and Raymond Chow had an agreement.  They were going to meet up at Betty Ting Pei, in her apartment and they were going to discuss a new upcoming movie.  So Raymond Chow went and picked up Bruce Lee at his house.”

They were going to drive over to Betty Ting Pei’s apartment.  Raymond Chow already noticed that Bruce Lee wasn’t looking too well.  Look at this picture.  This is just a few days before Bruce Lee passed away.  I mean, just look at this picture.  This is so unusual for Bruce.  Bruce always looked like a million dollars and this guy, I mean it’s unrecognizable.  It’s not like seeing Bruce Lee at all.  He looks half-dead already.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

I mean look at him.  This is a guy that’s in serious trouble.  Raymond Chow said that, “Okay, we don’t have to do this today,” and Bruce Lee insisted that, “Nope, we’re going to do this today.  We’re going to go to the apartment and have the business meeting.”  Raymond said, “Okay, let’s do it.”  So they left.  They drove to her apartment.  They met up there and Raymond Chow left him alone because he was going to go and pick up George Lazenby because George Lazenby was going to be in Bruce Lee’s next movie.

So Betty Ting Pei and Bruce Lee was there, sat there in her apartment and they were discussing the new upcoming movie.  Bruce was just out of it.  That whole day he just wasn’t feeling well and he drank water.  It didn’t help.  Then he asked for an aspirin and Betty Ting Pei gave him the aspirin.  By the way, that aspirin is just generic aspirin.  That’s the most common painkiller in Hong Kong.  Bruce Lee had been taking that painkiller for decades.  It’s nothing special.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

It did nothing to him, because people think that that painkiller somehow killed Bruce Lee.  That’s just nonsense.  Bruce Lee had taken those painkillers for decades.  It’s the most common painkiller in Hong Kong.  So, actually it’s the quite opposite.  The painkiller didn’t do enough.  Bruce Lee was used to painkillers that were a hundred times stronger, and this painkiller just did nothing – nothing for him.

So if he’d had his own painkillers with him, he might have reduced the swelling in his brain when he was at her apartment.  But his painkillers was at his house, so didn’t have them available.  So he said, “Okay, I’m just out of it.  I’m going to rest a few hours here on the bed.  He drank the painkiller.  He went to rest and he basically never woke up.  After half an hour, Betty Ting Pei was like, “What’s going on here?  He’s not responding at all.”

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

She went to check on him.  He didn’t respond at all.  He was just out cold and she got concerned.  So she called Raymond Chow and Raymond Chow came to the apartment and said that he tried to wake up Bruce.  Bruce didn’t respond.  So Raymond Chow called his personal doctor and to come and take a look at Bruce.  He came and he wasn’t able to wake Bruce.  That’s when they knew that we are in serious trouble now.

So they called the ambulance.  The ambulance came really quick.  They picked him up.  They drove him to the hospital, the nearest hospital and they tried everything – everything to save him.  But the swelling had already gotten so serious that they couldn’t reduce it.  It was just too little too late.  This was not a surprise for the people that were around Bruce Lee because take a look at him.  He just looked completely worn out.  He was just half-dead.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

Plus the fact that he already had collapsed.  He already was in the hospital just a few weeks earlier and that’s what annoys me a lot here is that people, you know…  They respected Bruce Lee so much that no one dared to tell him something.  No one dared to force him to go to the hospital.  No one said, “Bruce, listen up here.  You’re going to the fucking hospital right now!”  No one did that.  No one had the guts to do that because they were afraid.

They were afraid that Bruce Lee was just going to fire them or just stop being their friend or whatever.  They were afraid of Bruce.  He had so much power and influence that they were afraid to talk back to him.  So, no one actually told him the truth.  They were too scared of him to tell him the truth.  Bruce Lee had a crazy temper.  The people that knew him knew that Bruce Lee had a crazy temper.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

So if you told him that, ‘You have to go to the doctor,” he might snap at you and say that, “No, I don’t need a doctor and just go on.”  So yeah, no one just took that situation and forced him to go to the doctor.  He unfortunately had to make that decision himself because no one could make a decision for him.  His ego was literally too huge for him to submit to a doctor.  He thought that he could just ride this wave out and he’s not in danger.

That’s a problem that we have.  Yes, people around you, everyone just says “Yes.”  No one says, “No.”  If someone just picked up on this.  Just look at him!  Look at the picture!  He looks like he’s dying!  If someone just said, “Bruce, enough is enough.  Let’s get you to the hospital now.  Let’s get you to the doctor.  You need attention right now.”  No one did that!  If someone had done that, Bruce Lee would have been alive today.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

So that is really, really sad.  So after trying to save him at the hospital, they couldn’t.  He was already too late and he passed away around 11:00 that night.  Raymond Chow called his wife Linda, told her the bad news.  She came over.  It was too late when she came over, already too late and that’s that.  Man, those are the last hours of Bruce Lee’s life.  It’s just really, really sad that it had to end that way but you know, what are you going to do?

You can’t blame anyone really.  It’s Bruce Lee’s own choice.  I’ve talked about this before.  Everything he did was his own choice.  No one controlled him.  No one told him what to do.  When you are someone like Bruce Lee, you are just up in the skies.  Everything is going your way and he had like the most amazing body in human history.  He thought he was invincible but you know, the body can only take so much – even Bruce Lee’s body.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

A normal person would have died 10 years earlier from all that exercise and all that wear and tear.  Bruce Lee managed to hold on for another 10 years with that insane regiment, and I mean just yeah…  It’s crazy what he pulled off.  So but you know, eventually his body just said enough is enough.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t at his own home when this happened.  He was a ticking time bomb, that’s the thing.  It’s just a matter of luck at this point.

If he had been like in his own home when this happened, he could have taken his own painkillers and reduced the swelling in his brain and survived.  So it’s just dumb luck, if you want to say it that way.  Just pure luck, dumb luck and that day was just unlucky.  Unlucky that he was away from his own home and had a severe swelling in his brain, and that’s that.  So there you go guys!  That’s what actually happened the last hours of Bruce Lee’s life and no one is to blame except Bruce himself.

Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central  (Bernard AKA Beerdy. Former IFC champion and mixed marital artist, YouTube Channel):

Maybe other people can learn from his mistakes.  Maybe other types  like Bruce and MMA people, martial artists, celebrities, whatever, even you guys at home listening.  If you’re working out, listen to your body, man!  Listen to your body.  It’s so important that you listen to your body.  If your body is hurting somewhere, it’s your back, it’s your knees, it’s your head, it’s your neck – don’t just mask it with painkillers.

Your body is trying to tell you something, something is wrong!  That’s why the pain is there.  Evolutions sorted that out.  There’s a reason that nerves can conduct pain, because they’re trying to tell you something.  Something is wrong here, fix it.  Don’t just mask it.  Fix it.  Bruce Lee just masked it.  He didn’t fix it.  He masked it with painkillers.  That was a huge mistake.  Fix the root cause of your pain, okay.  That is a lesson you can take from Bruce Lee.  Okay, remember that guys.  Okay, thank you for listening.  See you later!  Bye.”