What sent Kanye West to the hospital? Here are the theories - Los Angeles Times
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What sent Kanye West to the hospital? Here are the theories

The original version of this 911 call provided to the Times by the L.A. Fire Department included redacted portions to prevent the release of confidential health information. This condenses audible portions of the publicly released recording to remov

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With Kanye West finally out of the hospital after more than a week of treatment, the speculative drumbeats around “why did he snap?” and “what’s going on?” were still going strong.

First the news: Word that the rapper had checked out of UCLA Medical Center was confirmed by The Times on Wednesday.

He got out Tuesday night after doctors determined he had stabilized and was well enough to go home, a source told BuzzFeed News. West is home with wife Kim Kardashian and their kids, and was under the care of his personal physician, TMZ said.

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West and his people have maintained radio silence since a 911 call on Nov. 21 kicked off the rapper’s health drama — but the gossip-sphere abhors a vacuum, and unnamed sources have been more than willing to talk.

So here are some of the tidbits that are circulating about what’s up with Yeezy and his family, and what might have sent him into treatment for exhaustion, sleep deprivation and possibly a few other things.

You want theories? We’ve got theories

There’s the Donda West Death Anniversary Theory of what fueled the “Life of Pablo” artist’s apparent breakdown. Kanye’s mom, Donda, died on Nov. 10, 2007, while recovering after plastic surgery. Sources reportedly close to ’Ye, who was in London when she passed away in Los Angeles, told TMZ on Wednesday that he never properly mourned her death and had struggled each November since then.

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This year, they said, the stresses of extreme sleep deprivation, touring and dealing with Kardashian’s armed robbery plus the Nov. 20 anniversary of Donda’s funeral were enough to mentally undo the father of two.

Then there’s the Trouble Was Brewing at Home Theory, offered up by an Us Weekly source who said Kim and Kanye’s relationship was strained after the Paris robbery, which “made her more hesitant to do things.”

Those things apparently included being backstage for him on his Saint Pablo Tour, so they weren’t seeing each other very often. Then, when he was home, the notoriously workaholic Kanye “would be up all night ranting about things,” the source said.

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“They were fighting because he was impossible to live with,” said another Us source.

Finally, there was the Wendy Williams Theory, perhaps better labeled the Wendy Williams Teleprompter-Assisted Psych Diagnosis.

“This is way more than sleep exhaustion,” Williams said Tuesday on her talk show. “Because we’ve all been sleep exhausted.”

She also said, “We could all see this coming.”

Where has Kim been? And where were the kids?

Hey, let’s ask Wendy!

“Kim reportedly is at his side nonstop — I do believe that, I do, I do, based on her robbery,” she speculated. “If she hadn’t been robbed, then maybe I would think something differently, like the family is Lamar-ing him.”

That appeared to be a reference to Khloe Kardashian leaving estranged husband Lamar Odom’s bedside after his overdose to go out publicly with then-boyfriend James Harden. Wendy had not been cool with Khloe’s moves at all, but apparently figured it was a partners-in-pain situation with Kim.

“Kim does spend hours with Kanye every day,” a source “close to the family” told People on Tuesday.

A more detailed rundown of Kim’s whereabouts, courtesy of TMZ spies, described a rigorous daily schedule that had the reality businesswoman at the hospital with her husband in the late morning and afternoon, then again in the late evening. She’s reportedly making medical decisions, dealing with the doctors and nurses and trying to keep his spirits up.

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The rest of the time she’s with 3-year-old North and 11-month-old Saint, TMZ said, waking them up in the morning, tucking them in at night, feeding them and simply spending time with them. The kids hadn’t been to the hospital because Kim was “very worried about the kids being around Kanye,” a similarly family-adjacent source told People on Wednesday.

OMG, Kendall Jenner commented!

Of course, in the very public landscape that is Kardashian land, radio silence is rarely completely silent.

Kendall Jenner at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris on Wednesday.
Kendall Jenner at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Paris on Wednesday.
(Francois Mori / Associated Press )

Kanye’s supermodel half-sister-in-law Kendall Jenner dropped a few syllables for the record backstage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Paris on Wednesday.

Kanye is “weak,” is “drained” and — at least at the time — wasn’t ready to go home, Kendall told E! News. Kim, meanwhile, is “good,” “patient” and staying by his side.

Kendall got a bit chattier at the show with “Entertainment Tonight,” saying, “Everyone is doing OK, just praying.” She was sans family at the VS show, but said they’d been keeping her in the loop. “I’ve literally been texting with all of them, like, the past couple days.”

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(Yes, the family business keeps rolling. Despite a report to the contrary, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” is “currently in production and has not been halted,” a spokesperson for the E! network told the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.)

Let’s not forget it’s about Kanye, OK?

Before he checked out, Kanye was allegedly trying to keep working, one Us Weekly source said, despite being admonished by his wife that he should rest.

“At the hospital, he requested that recording equipment be brought to the hospital so he can record in his bed,” the source said Tuesday. “And he has kept asking to see sketches of his fashion lines.”

A “Kim confidant” told Us Weekly that before his doc called 911, Kanye hadn’t slept for “about a week” and “was having difficulty identifying what was real.”

One dose of reality: Kanye’s father, who divorced Donda West when Kanye was 3, visited his son for about three hours on Sunday, according to X17 Online.

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Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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