YouTuber Dr. Dan Bockmann Has Passed Away, but Was "Living a Much Purer Life" in His Final Days
In his “Last Transmission" video, Dr. Dan Bockmann shared some parting words with his followers as he new death was nearing.
Updated July 24 2024, 4:58 p.m. ET
Before he was diagnosed with cancer, Dr. Dan Bockmann was a vlogging chiropractor who helped his followers manage pain. But in 2021, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer when doctors found a “softball-sized” tumor in his rectum during a colonoscopy that had been postponed due to COVID-19 complications.
Throughout his journey, Dr. Dan shared his experience with cancer while continuing to share chiropractor tips and tricks on his YouTube channel, Dr. Dan Says.
On June 22, 2024, Dr. Dan shared his “Last Transmission | Final Thoughts and Smiles!” video, marking it as his final video as he neared cancer’s kiss of death. On July 23, 2024, a saddening update came from Dr. Dans's brother, John, via X: Dr. Dan had passed away on July 22, 2024, surrounded by family. Here's everything we know about his journey.
Dr. Dan Bockmann passed away in July 2024. He was 54.
Although Dr. Dan was well aware of his probable fate, news of his death came as a shock to fans. On July 23, 2024, his brother, John, took to X to announce, "Hi, friends. I'm sad and relieved to say that Dan died at 5:08 p.m. Central / 6:08 p.m. Eastern yesterday evening. Utter peace. Mom, Dad, me, and a friend (who happened to be bringing us food at the time) holding him as he gradually stopped breathing."
In a follow-up post, he added, "We bathed him and dressed him in dark gray pants and his pink (Friday) scrub top. I washed his hair and styled it. He looks really handsome and even has a smirk."
His brother later posted a 22-minute video to Dr. Dan’s YouTube channel, stating that while he is “sad over Dan’s loss,” he is “deeply relieved that he is not in any pain and discomfort.”
Dr. Dan Bockmann had updated his ‘Dr. Dan Says’ followers with a final video.
Before Dr. Dan’s “Last Transmission” video, he had only shared two videos in the previous five months, one titled “Best day in a while!” in February 2024 and another titled “New immunotherapy & seeing improvements!” in May 2024. But by June 2024, a few years after his initial 6-month maximum life expectancy, Dr. Dan shared in his final video.
“Things are declining physically,” he shared. “This is end of life for me, is what I consider it. This, I think, may be my last transmission, which is a very weird, odd thing to say, but it could be. I don’t want it to be, obviously. I want to come back and say, ‘Oh, you know what? I had a big turnaround and now I feel great and things are changing.’ And if that happens, I will be the first to tell you.”
As he talked directly to the followers, Dr. Dan appreciated his surroundings and the weather, taking in every beautiful detail that life has to offer. He had just gotten out of the hospital after a recent surgery for an abscess below his belly button, although his doctors didn't know what caused it, except that all the scarring, surgery, and chemo created cement-like bowels, which should be more fluid.
Dr. Dan shared in what would be his final health update that his health was rapidly declining.
“So real quick health update,” he said. “I did chemo and radiation for a year, then I took some time off and the tumors grew back, so we tried a drug trial because we already used all the big guns when it came to chemo, and that didn’t seem to work, so we switched to a different drug trial. These are experimental drugs in the immunotherapies, mostly.
And that didn’t seem to work either.
“So now I’m on hospice,” he revealed. “So what that means is that I have a fantastic hospice company … They did two back-to-back visits, spent hours with us, answering questions, just super nice, kind, empathetic people. So it’s been a hands-down wonderful experience with this company. You can see I haven’t really gained much weight, I’m still pretty skinny. Eating like a horse!”
But no matter what, it was hard for Dr. Dan to keep weight on as he managed his cancer. He revealed he was about 30 pounds under his normal weight. “We’ve stopped the trials,” he added. “I’m on no meds other than what are called palliative meds. So ‘palliative’ just means pain-relieving, comfort-providing drugs.”
He had shared that he would take a microscopic dose of a synthetic opioid before bed and have “the best sleep he’s ever had in his life,” so he’s not “piling up on pain meds.” He also shared that his symptoms included difficulty walking and balancing. “All of this sounds really grim, I know,” he said. “A new development in my last scan shows that I have a new tumor in my adrenal gland this time, so I’ve got them all over at this point — rectum, liver, pancreas, adrenal gland, lungs, and I suspect in my cerebellum in my brain.”
He was excited to write books and tackle his tumors, but his decline had “dictated” everything in his life from what he could do to how he could speak.
“Even just talking can be exhausting,” he shared. “But it’s part of life, you know? We all know birth is the beginning of life, and we just kind of gloss over the end of life, and when it comes, we’re shocked and scared and surprised, when in reality, it’s just a normal part of life.”
“I feel happy to have a legacy behind me of doing things I wanted to do, things that are important to me, things that I feel matter,” Dr. Dan had said with optimism and appreciation for his 54-year lifetime.
Cancer is one heck of a beast, and although this “Last Transmission” video was Dr. Dan’s final words, we’ll always appreciate his candor and kindness throughout his journey.
