"Swamp People" Star Dead at 48 - East Idaho News
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“Swamp People” Star Dead at 48

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GETTY E 051512 Swamp?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1337070850528iStockphoto/Thinkstock(PIERRE PART, La.) — Mitchell Guist, who stars on the reality television series Swamp People, died while on a boat in a Louisiana swamp country, according to a local sheriff.

Guist, who was 48, died Monday after he fell while on a boat on the Intracoastal Waterway near Pierre Part, Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack confirmed.

Swamp People, which airs on The History Channel, chronicles the lives and adventures of alligator hunters in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya swamp country.

“We are extremely saddened to report that our friend and beloved member of the Swamp People family, Mitchell Guist, has passed away,” The History Channel said Monday.  “Mitchell passed on the swamp, doing what he loved.  We appreciate your respect for the Guist family’s privacy and hope you join us in sending our thoughts and prayers to his brother, Glenn, and the rest of the Guist family.”

Sheriff Waguespack said that Guist died after he was taken to the Teche Regional Medical Center after he fell while on the waterway around 9 a.m. Monday, according to initial reports.  Guist’s cause of death or the fall is still unclear at this time, though Waguespack said that he appeared to have had a seizure.

911 calls indicate that locals on the scene went to extreme lengths to try to revive Guist with CPR.

“You say he’s in cardiac arrest?” the 911 dispatcher asked.

“Yes sir, we’re blowing and pumping the guy’s chest right now … It looks like he may have had a heart attack,” the caller said.

The History Channel said that Guist would have turned 49 on Friday.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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