The Los Angeles native earned a business degree in 1988 at the University of Southern California and was the first in his family to graduate from college.
He carried his experience in personal fitness into the reality TV world with Bravo's program “Work Out”.
He viewed his celebrity as an opportunity to market a book he had been working on, related to the early deaths of his parents and sister, as well as his time caring for his grandmother in her final days.
He confided to one of his personal training clients that he wished to share those experiences with the public, with the hope that it would benefit others.
During his birthday party and Cheo's blood treatment, Doug was noticeably sick onscreen, coughing almost nonstop.
Jackie did not realize how serious everything was until she finally got a call from Cheo saying that Doug had a very severe flu and was admitted to the hospital; Blasdell was so dehydrated that his kidneys shut down to the point where he was put into a chemically induced coma.
[8] In an April Blog on BravoTv's website, Brian Peeler announced that Doug had been undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma.
Doug became ill with salmonella poisoning after his birthday and later developed a staph infection from the shunt in his neck that would ultimately cause his liver to also shut down and contribute to his death.
Primary CNS lymphoma is highly associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection (> 90%) in immunodeficient patients (such as those with AIDS and those iatrogenically immunosuppressed).