Before his death in early 2003 from cardiac arrest, Maurice Gibb was a member of the beloved
pop group the Bee Gees.
Of course, the “B” and “G” of the group’s name stood for “the Brothers Gibb”,
with Maurice having formed the band many decades prior alongside his brothers, including twin
brother Robin.
After Maurice’s death, the musician’s brothers were devastated.
Not only had they lost their brother and bandmate, but they also felt that Maurice’s death
had been totally preventable.
The issue was later settled out of court between Maurice’s widow and the hospital where the
musician had passed.
Today, many still believe that Maurice would be here today if it weren’t for the incompetency
of the hospital.
Join Facts Verse as tragic new details change everything about Maurice Gibb’s death.
When Bee Gees member Maurice Gibb passed away in January of 2003, fans of the legendary
pop group were devastated.
Not only were fans devastated, but so were the musician’s brothers and bandmates.
The name “the Bee Gees” was short for “the Brothers Gibb”, and Maurice’s bandmates
in the group were two of his brothers.
Upon Maurice’s death, the remaining Bee Gees not only lost an important member of
their band but a real-life brother.
Besides Maurice’s brothers and surviving bandmates, other parties that were troubled
upon the announcement of the musician’s shocking 2003 death were his wife and adult
children.
Maurice’s wife at the time of his death was Yvonne Gibb, whom he had been married
to since 1975.
The couple sadly never got to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their marriage as a result
of Maurice’s surprise death.
Maurice’s death had come as a surprise not only to the public but also to those who knew
the musician best.
Maurice had been hospitalized for stomach pains, resulting in a successful surgery that
he was recovering from when tragedy struck.
After arriving at the hospital and complaining of stomach pains, Maurice Gibbs received emergency
surgery to remove an intestinal blockage.
It was while Maurice was recovering from this surgery that he tragically passed.
The night following the surgery, Maurice’s intestines burst open.
As a result of this, Maurice went into cardiac arrest.
At the hospital where Maurice was being treated, he was being held in a VIP room that was five
floors above where the facility’s emergency equipment was stored.
Apparently, it took upwards of ten minutes for the hospital’s staff to get the necessary
emergency supplies to Maurice upon the musician going into cardiac arrest, at which point
fatal amounts of brain damage had already occurred.
Understandably, Maurice’s surviving brothers found themselves incredibly angry upon the
news of the musician’s seemingly preventable death.
Almost immediately, talk began springing up of the musician’s surviving family hitting
the facility where Maurice had passed away with a wrongful death suit.
However, it ended up being Maurice’s widow who was given the power over whether or not
to press charges, and she decided that suing the hospital was wrong.
Instead, she settled with the facility out of court, receiving an undisclosed sum of
money in the process.
Surviving brothers Robin and Barry Gibb were forced to accept the decision of Maurice’s
widow, although they would’ve preferred the opportunity to be able to get justice
in the courts for the preventable death of their brother.
Upon Maurice Gibb’s passing, the musician’s entire estate went to his widow and his two
surviving adult children.
Those two children are Samantha and Adam, who were in their 20s at the time of their
father’s death.
Maurice’s estate was said to be valued at around $24 million and included the copyrights
to all of the musician’s works.
The Bee Gees certainly had plenty of hits during their heyday, including “Stayin’
Alive”.
Of Maurice’s surviving brothers, the one who took the musician’s death the hardest
was probably fraternal twin Robin.
While all three Bee Gees had been brothers, Maurice and Robin were twins.
Robin and Barry Gibb consulted a team of lawyers about suing the hospital where Maurice had
perished, but Yvonne ended up talking the brothers out of pursuing legal action.
At the end of the day, the surviving Bee Gees were forced to come to terms with the death
of Maurice and move on.
In the years since Maurice’s passing, Robin has also passed away.
Robin Gibb passed away in 2012, with 75-year-old Barry Gibb now being the last remaining Bee
Gee.
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Following the tragic and seemingly preventable death of Bee Gees member Maurice Gibb in early
2003, fans were quick to join the remaining Brothers Gibb to pay their respects to the
beloved musician.
Alongside his brothers, Maurice had climbed to success over the course of the 1970s thanks
to numerous popular music hits, which included “More Than a Woman” and “Night Fever”
in addition to the aforementioned “Stayin’ Alive”.
While the Bee Gees remain best known to this day as a disco group, that label was something
that the band always worked incredibly hard to escape.
At the time of his 2003 death, Maurice Gibb was only 53 years old.
Barry Gibb is the only member of the Bee Gees that is still alive today, though he remains
adamant that Maurice would still be around, too, if it weren’t for the incompetency
of the hospital where he had passed away.
In the day leading up to the night of his passing, it seemed that things were turning
around for Maurice and that his health was picking back up.
The musician had been admitted into the hospital several days previously complaining of stomach
pains, but these pains were thought to have been resolved thanks to subsequent emergency
intestinal surgery.
According to those that were around Maurice before his passing, it seemed as if the musician
was doing okay.
The initial fears that had swelled up amongst his loved ones upon his initial internment
into the hospital had abated upon his seemingly successful intestinal surgery, and it looked
as if he was about to make a full recovery.
Sadly, this didn’t end up being the case.
It seems that the doctors didn’t keep a close enough eye on the musician, and they
were not prepared when his intestines burst during the night.
The Bee Gees consisted of Maurice, Robin, and Barry, though there was a fourth Gibb
brother who was also involved in popular music.
That fourth Gibb brother was Andy Gibb, who also died tragically.
Andy Gibb was the younger brother of the Bee Gees, and he passed away in 1988, at the age
of only 30.
To make matters even more coincidental, Andy also passed away from issues relating to his
heart!
Because of the death of Andy, the Brothers Gibb already knew what it was like to have
to suffer the death of a family member well before their time.
During the Bee Gees’ heyday, the group had dozens of hits, including nine songs that
reached number one on the charts.
Today, the only artists that are regarded as being more successful than the Bee Gees
are Elvis, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson.
The Beatles were the group that the Bee Gees were initially trying to emulate when they
first broke onto the music scene in the 1960s.
However, the brothers eventually formed their own identity and became better known to the
public with their own unique image.
The thing that the Bee Gees remain best known for is their soundtrack work on the film Saturday
Night Fever.
The film’s soundtrack included the aforementioned hits “Stayin’ Alive”, “More Than a
Woman”, and “Night Fever”.
As a result of the band’s incredible success, they received seven Grammy Awards over the
course of their career.
In 1997, several years before Maurice’s passing, the group was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame.
Despite the fact that the Bee Gees became best known for their disco-styled hits on
the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the band hated being pigeonholed as a disco group.
The Bee Gees had started out as a teen pop group, during which time they found success
in Australia.
Saturday Night Fever was released in 1977, meaning that the peak of the Bee Gees success
came in the late 1970s.
Although Maurice Gibb was completely clean and sober by the time of his tragic death,
the musician had suffered from numerous periods of substance abuse over the course of his
lifetime.
Maurice’s most prominent battles with substance abuse occurred when the musician was in his
20s and his 40s.
It seems that Maurice’s substances of choice were alcohol and cocaine, though the musician
had long since given his bad habits up by the time of his death.
Starting in the 1990s and leading up until his passing, Maurice wore an Alcoholic Anonymous
badge everywhere he went.
Around the time of Saturday Night Fever’s success, Maurice moved to Florida alongside
his two bandmates.
Maurice lived in Florida until his death, and it was at a Florida hospital that he ended
up passing away.
Yvonne Gibb was Maurice’s second wife, with the musician having been married to British
pop singer Lulu for a short period of time.
Maurice and Lulu were married from 1969 to 1973.
Upon Maurice’s death, his ashes were formed into precious stones that were given to widow
Yvonne, Barry, Robin, and the three brothers’ mother.
Robin Gibb’s 2012 funeral marked the first point since the creation of these precious
stones that all of them were reunited in the same room.
While Robin and Barry Gibb would’ve liked to have gotten justice in the courts for the
seemingly preventable death of their brother Maurice, the surviving Bee Gees members had
to let their grudge go at the behest of Maurice’s widow, Yvonne.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Maurice Gibb’s death is thought
to have been entirely preventable, but that the musician’s widow kept his brothers from
suing the hospital where he had passed?
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