At the age of ten, he suffered internal bleeding when his spleen ruptured after what he claimed was an ice skating accident. However, in the Swedish metal book Blod eld död (English: "Blood Fire Death"), his brother Anders Ohlin confessed in an exclusive interview that Dead was frequently bullied in school, and one day he succumbed to a ruptured spleen which was a direct result of a severe beating by bullies. Because of the injury, he had to be rushed to a hospital, where he was, for a time, declared clinically dead. After a few years, the incident resulted in a fascination with death, and later inspired his stage name.