Prince‘s sister Tyka Nelson was suffering from congestive heart failure when she died… but authorities say her heart was also weakened by substance abuse.
The Minnesota Dept. of Health issued Tyka’s death certificate, which lists cardiac arrest as the primary cause of death and congestive heart failure as a secondary cause.
According to her death certificate, the 64-year-old singer and songwriter went into cardiac arrest about 45 minutes before she was pronounced dead. She had also battled non-ischemic cardiomyopathy – a general term for abnormal heart function – for more than four months.
Tyka died on November 4 in Minneapolis/St. Paul and as TMZ first reported… she had been suffering from heart problems for several years. We discovered that paramedics had been called to her home at least 6 times since September.
Her death certificate also lists a “substance use disorder” as a condition contributing to her death, but the document does not mention a specific substance.
She was cremated and is survived by her 2 sons.