Work Out's Brian Peeler on Doug Blasdell's Death

No one was more affected by the tragic death of Bravo’s Work Out trainer Doug Blasdell than his best friend and co-worker Brian Peeler. Though the two seemed to be different in so many respects, once the show started, they quickly became best friends and shared a brotherly love that was supposed to last a lifetime. When Blasdell suddenly died in January of this year, it left Brian confused, surprised, and devastated. AfterElton.com recently spoke with Brian about the circumstances surrounding Doug's death, Doug's fears he wouldn't live to see his forty-fourth birthday, and Brian's belief Doug is watching over him today.

AfterElton: How did you learn of Doug's death?
Brian Peeler: I knew Doug was sick shortly after we finished season one. He had lymphoma cancer and he was doing chemo. They caught it in the early stages. It was the same thing that his mother and his father had died from. I think they caught [his] in stage one or stage two. So he was doing chemo to combat it. And after his birthday, he was supposed to go home with us for Christmas, and he pushed his chemo back because he wanted to do his birthday. He pushed his chemo to the 18th because we were leaving on the 20th, and he was going to be to sick from the chemo to fly and go with us.

So he stayed home. And he got salmonella poisoning. And the salmonella poisoning, he treated and thought it was the flu. For three days, he treated it like it was the flu. He dehydrated himself so bad that it shut his kidneys down.

On the 25th he called me and said he wasn’t feeling good and he was going to stay with his friend. And the next thing I know, on the 27th I get a call that he’s in the hospital. His kidneys failed. They put him on a respirator. He’s really bad. And he’s on dialysis every day. It came as a shock to me. The guy said there’s nothing I can do. Just finish my vacation. So when I got home, Doug got off the respirator on January 8th. I made a phone call to him as you will see on the episode. You’ll get to hear the phone call I made to him. And he said he’s feeling better and he’ll be out in two or three days. Everything is coming around, and he’s got a whole new outlook on life.

And then the next thing I know, it’s getting worse. He falls back and gets a staph infection from the dialysis in his neck which ultimately kills his liver and his pancreas. His kidneys are already failing. And his gall bladder is so full of junk. His body was too weak to fight anymore. From the chemo, everything. He didn’t have any fight left, and his body couldn’t recover.

So that’s what happened as far as that. His heart stopped. They resuscitated him on Saturday. They said if it happened again, they weren’t going to do it again. So on Sunday, his close friends were around him. I couldn’t be there because it happened too rapidly, [but] they were all around him and his heart slowly went down in beats until it stopped.

AE: And this is all on the show?
BP: They’re trying handle it sensitively. They’re not going to show him dying or anything like that. I get the call that says he’s going to die within the next 24-48 hours and there’s nothing they can do. I have to give the meeting [with the Sky Sport staff]. And everybody comes in there laughing and giggling having a good time, and I’m just about to cry to death. I fall apart like anybody would. I just started crying. I didn’t know how to be strong. I’m a leader all the time. Everybody always looks to me for answers as a trainer but I couldn’t do anything. All I could do was sit there and cry.

AE: Does the show discuss how he passed?
BP: No. They don’t say how he passed. It’s published on the Bravo website how he passed. They let it go on my blog. I had heard people saying he was a coke head and meth head and steroids. Stupid stuff. And it was really pissing me off. So I was like, Doug asked me to keep it private when he was sick. He didn’t want anybody knowing he had cancer and chemo. He was just trying to stay as healthy looking as he could, and he didn’t want anybody to feel bad for him. Now that he’s dead, I think people should know what happened. Instead of coming up with bogus ideas and saying bogus stuff about him, I wanted his name to be taken right. I don’t want his name to be trashed.