Today we learn (if we don’t already know) the importance of taking care of the little things in life.
Mohammed al-Fassi died on the night before Christmas because he didn’t take care of his hernia.
For all of you out there: if you’ve somehow developed of tissue deficiency of the transversus abdominis muscle (which makes up the floor of the inguinal canal), allowing some of your intestines to protrude directly through a defect in the inguinal canal floor, you might want to go check that out professionally, or you may end up having your death announced by one of your soon-to-be ex-wife’s famous divorce attorney.
January 5, 2003
Mohammed al-Fassi, 50; Upset Beverly Hills Over House
Mohammed al-Fassi, an in-law of the Saudi royal family who won fame by turning a Beverly Hills mansion into an eyesore, died on Dec. 24 in Cairo. He was 50.
His death was reported this week in Los Angeles by Marvin M. Mitchelson, the divorce lawyer representing one of his wives, Sheika Dena al-Fassi. Mr. Mitchelson said the cause was an infected hernia.
Mohammed al-Fassi, at times referred to as Prince al-Fassi, was born in Morocco. His father, a merchant, took him to Saudi Arabia when he was 10. His sister married a brother of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
In 1978, he paid $2.4 million in cash for a 38-room white-stucco mansion on Sunset Boulevard and scandalized a staid neighborhood by painting it pea green and covering its Italianate outdoor statuary in “natural” colors, genitals and all.
Two years later, the villa was gutted by fire.
Four grown children survive.
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