'He could've been treated differently': Toronto man dies at home after several visits to local hospital

A Toronto music lover who thrived in the company of others died alone at home following three visits to a local hospital due to severe abdominal pain, according to one of his closest friends.

A Toronto music lover who thrived in the company of others died alone at home following three visits to a local hospital due to severe abdominal pain, according to one of his closest friends.

“He didn't talk very much, but he had this presence that everybody enjoyed hanging out with him because he was just the nicest guy that ever lived,” John Romanelli told CTV News Toronto as he described Walter Froebrich, who he met at a concert some 20 years earlier.

“Not many people can pass away and they have not one enemy in their whole entire life. And, you know, he was that guy.”

The soft-spoken metalhead had become a fixture in the city’s hardcore music scene. If a big-time act like Slayer or Anthrax was coming to town, Romanelli said, Froebrich wouldn't be hard to find somewhere in the crowd with his bushy long beard and 90s-era camera in hand.

“He always went out of his way to get pictures with everybody that was his little thing that he liked to do.”

Those pictures, of which Romanelli believes there are thousands, have been surfacing on social media in recent days following Froebrich’s death last month as friends, promoters, and musicians alike pay tribute to their friend.

Froebrich had been complaining of severe abdominal pain in recent weeks which friends believed was related to an internal tear. He had been searching for medical care to treat the issue but had struggled to do so without a family doctor.