Argentine rocker Gustavo Cerati dies at 55

BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Argentinean rock star Gustavo Cerati died Thursday in a Buenos Aires hospital after spending the past four years in a coma. He was 55.

Cerati had a stroke on May 16, 2010, hours after performing a show in Caracas, Venezuela. He was in a coma since the incident.

"We announce that today in the morning patient Gustavo Cerati died as a result of respiratory arrest," the singer's doctor at la Clínica ACLA, Gustavo Barbalace said Thursday.

The rocker rose to fame in the mid '80s as the lead singer and guitarist of the band Soda Estereo alongside bass player Héctor Zeta Bosio and drummer Charly Alberti. The band went on its last tour in 1997 after announcing its plan to split. Cerati went on to have a successful solo career.

Cerati's family took to Facebook after news of his death broke to announce plans to hold vigil in his honor at the Legislatura Porteña in Buenos Aries on Thursday night.