Late ‘This Week’ EP died of choking, not heart attack and his widow was arrested for child endangerment

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The official cause of death for the late executive producer of ABC’s “This Week” has been released — and it wasn’t what was originally announced.

ABC News initially said that Dax Tejera died from a heart attack after collapsing at a hotel in New York. It’s not clear where that determination came from given it was announced less than 24 hours after he died.

It’s not uncommon for cause of deaths to remain undetermined or revised later after more thorough medical examinations and tests.

Now, however, new reports released by the medical examiner’s office say he died from “asphyxia due to obstruction of airway by food bolus complicating acute alcohol intoxication.”

Bolus typically refers to a piece of food that has been swallowed while asphyxia is a condition where the body is deprived of oxygen. In the simplest terms, this means that it appears Tejera choked to death, likely on a piece of food that got caught somewhere along the respiratory tract that delivers oxygen to the lungs.

Meanwhile, Tejera’s widow, Veronica, was arrested a few hours after he collapsed on charges of child endangerment.

Documents show she did acknowledge leaving the Yale Club hotel to be by her husband’s side at the hospital but made arrangements for her children to be watched.

When the police wouldn’t let one of the friends she called into the club, they turned the tables on her and charged her, she claims. She also said that she was monitoring them via remote camera from the hospital.