Valdir Segato aka Brazilian Hulk bodybuilder dead at 55 after injecting self with oil as he sought cult like status and fame despite living lonely solitary existence.
At what cost fame? A Brazilian bodybuilder who injected himself with oil for bigger muscles died on his 55th birthday. The man’s death comes after amassing a social media following into the millions.
Valdir Segato had been using potentially fatal injections of Synthol for years, risking strokes and infections, to get huge biceps, pectorals and back muscles.
Segato previously said his body inspirations were Arnold Schwarzenegger and fictional characters like the Hulk.
‘They call me Hulk, Schwarzenegger and He-Man all the time and I like that. I’ve doubled my biceps but I still want to be bigger,’ the bodybuilder previously told the Daily Mail.
Segato in a 2016 interview with the DailyMail told the tabloid he first began using the oil concoction after being offered it in a gym when he was recovering from drug addiction.
Despite vast social media following, bodybuilder lived isolated life with few friends
Six years ago, the São Paulo native was warned he would face amputation, or at least nerve damage and muscle disfigurement, as a result of the injections if he continued to use them.
His biceps blew up to 23 inches after he started injecting himself. He had come to be known as ‘the monster’ on the streets and was proud of his title.
He posted images of his body transformation on social media and even called himself ‘Valdir Synthol’ on Instagram.
Despite the bodybuilder attaining cult like status and amassing 1.7 million followers on TikTok, local media reported Segato living an isolated life with few friends or visitors.
Moisés da Conceição da Silva told Brazil’s Globo news that Segato rented a property built behind his family’s house, and on the day of his death, he was complaining about shortness of breath.
‘It was around 6 a.m., more or less. He came crawling through the back house and came to the front. Then he knocked on my mother’s window, knocked, knocked, then she woke up and he said ‘Help me, help me because I’m dying,’’ da Silva told the publication.
Segato was taken to a medical facility, but he fell at reception, appearing to have a heart attack.
Results were purely cosmetic
The TikTok star used to be a scrawny teen, but after being offered Synthol in the gym, he became addicted to the substance.
Synthol usually consists of a mixture of oil, benzyl alcohol and lidocaine and can cause ‘a damage of nerves, oil embolic of the pulmonary, occlusion of the pulmonary artery, myocardial infarction, cerebral stroke and infectious complications,’ according to Europe PubMed Central.
The results of the drug did not make Segato any stronger and were purely cosmetic.
‘It’s the risk he takes,’ Segato’s friend Fernando Carvalho da Silva has previously said. ‘He wants to look good and wants to be famous.’
