February 6, 2008
ME's Office on Heath Ledger's Death: Accidental Overdose
Just a little over two weeks after his death, and as his family prepares to bury him, the NYC medical examiner has given the results of Heath Ledger's toxicology report.
The official word is that the actor died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. A lot of prescription drugs.
The ME's spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, made the following statement: "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine.'' These are generic names for OxyContin, Valium, Xanax, Restoril and Unisom. (The AP originally reported that Hydrocodone was another name for Ibuprofen, however that is inaccurate and the drug is most commonly marketed as Vicodin.)
Heath’s father, Kim, has released a statement on behalf of the family in response to the Medical Examiner’s findings. He stated, "While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage." (Read the full statement after the jump.)
Meanwhile, as we approach the release date of his last film, The Dark Knight, it's being reported that the film he was working on, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, will keep him in the picture. The decision was made to keep his performance and "rework the film to accommodate it...out of respect for that performance and in memory of Heath."
Photo via ikarus50's Flickr.
Kim Ledger's statement:
"We remain humble as parents and a family, among millions of people worldwide who may have suffered the tragic loss of a child. Few can understand the hollow, wrenching, and enduring agony parents silently suffer when a child predeceases them. Today's results put an end to speculation, but our son's beautiful spirit and enduring memory will forever remain in our hearts. While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."Our family enjoyed an extremely happy two week visit with Heath just prior to the New Year. Those recent precious days will stay with us forever. We as a family feel privileged to have some of his amazing magic moments captured in film. To most of the world Heath was an actor of immeasurable talent and promise. To those who knew him personally, Heath was a consummate artist whose passions also included photography, music, chess and directing. We knew Heath as a loving father, as our devoted son, and as a loyal and generous brother and friend.
"We treasure our beautiful granddaughter Matilda (to our dear Michelle) as well as an unbelievably wonderful network of close friends, forever, around the world. Families rarely experience the uplifting, warm and massive outpouring of grief and support as have we, from every corner of the planet. This has deeply and profoundly touched our hearts and lives. We are eternally grateful.
"At this moment we respectfully request the worldwide media allow us time to grieve privately, without the intrusions associated with press and photography."
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sounds like a good old fashioned suicide to me.
^^ I agree. It doesn't sound like an accident.
What a shame though. His career was just about to take off.
Uh...
He "accidentally" mixed valium, xanax and oxycontin? was he recovering from having all his internal organs removed and had no access to sunlight?
hydrocodone is the primary ingredient in Vicoden, not Ibuprofen
gothamist should stop using PerezHilton as a source..
RIP
RIP
#4
what do you expect from carlson?
as they say..."garbage in, garbage out"
i think it stretches the truth to call an overdose of six different kinds of drugs "accidental". taking drugs in that kind of volume is suicidal behavior-- you know it's going to kill you eventually.
The statement released by his father is classy and moving. I hope the media respects their request.
OxyContin (aka Hillbilly Heroin) is a very strong painkiller that's supposed to be prescribed only for severe pain. Cancer, recent fractures, things like that.
Oxy is many, many times stronger than even the best heroin you can get on the street. Even though it's 'prescription', there's no difference between that and dope. Sad to say, but every junkie knows you don't mix benzo's and dope.
In real journalistic forums, accidental overdose was not written in quotes. Keep your damned opinions on the man's death to yourself. Do your job—the one that doesn't involve hanging out at crappy Williamsburg bar #5 and seeing shitty derivative indie rock band #10.
He had been complaining that 2 Ambiens would only knock him out for an hour. Maybe he was just hoping for a full eight hours of sleep.
Strange, the AP said the thing about ibuprofen and hydrocodone!
The coroner fails to mention the gay component of this No-Exitesque love triangle suicide. I am not pruriently satisfied.
It isn't exactly a secret that both Ambian and sleep deprivation can cause serious lapses in judgment.
OxyContin is only one form of oxycodone (it's the brand name of a delayed release, 12 hour formulation that's usually in high doses for extreme pain, like #10 says). However, oxycodone can also be given in a low dose form (other than OxyContin) that people can use for more moderate pain.
I guess my point is that just because he had oxycodone in his blood doesn't necessarily mean he took the OxyContin form of it.
Ibuprofen?! Ibuprofen is a generic drug. The brand name is Advil or Motrin here. It's not a prescription drug except in super-high quantities.
oxycodone = OxyContin
hydrocodone = Vicodin
diazepam = Valium
temazepam = Restoril
alprazolam = Xanax
doxylamine = Unisom
Five minutes with Wikipedia, guys. Srsly.
Also, you can crush up the those time release Oxy's and snort them, basically getting the whole thing at once instead of in a time delayed fashion. That may be why he passed away. Remember that rolled up dollar bill that they found? You can't really do that with Vicodin, but you can with Xanax/valium as well.
I am never, ever annoyed by the reporters on Gothamist, but this is the third time in recent weeks Jen Carlson has irritated me to the point of almost writing in and then deciding that I like this site too much.
But, holy shit, I agree with what someone wrote above, keep your opinions off the headlines. The quotes are tacky and immature. I can't resist this time.
Please don't try so hard to appear cool or whatever it is that's compelling you to write this way!
Actually, Diazepan is Valium...
I'll stick with Fentanyl, thank you.
RIP Mr. Ledger.
The quotes were not implying anything, the ME's office said he died of an accidental overdose, so that is why I put that part in quotes. It's been changed now. Move along.
Fentanyl patches are the greatest invention of all time.
HEATH ALERT
He counted on Ambien
And with it he dozed
But he counted too many
Now the Ledger is closed.
jammer & mihow, while the quotes may have been redundant due to the use of the colon, you two obviously aren't familiar with these drugs & that's a good thing because those are very powerful drugs that he took.
Is everyone here impressed with E.D.'s extensive drug knowledge? Sheesh.
Wonder if there was Ambien (zolpidem) also detected? Ambien, being rapid-onset & short-acting sedative/hypnotic (thus it's alternative use for such things as "date rape") can produce a state where it's almost as if the taker's body is awake and functioning and the brain is "asleep". It also induces a state of amnesia. Having interacted with people who have taken zoplidem within the preious 1-2 hours, it is easy to see how someone with it on board (with other bottles around, not a good idea) could be confused and unaware of what they had just taken.
Just some zolpidem & promethazine caused a Kennedy (I forget which one, there's so many) to crash a barrier in DC thinking he was on a way to a vote @ 3AM.
Oxycodone is not just "Oxycontin", it is also combined with other stuff to make the familiar Percocet & Percodan, among others.
The mechanism of death is respiratory depression (your brain basically forgets to breathe) from the opiates, with a secondary contribution by the Benzos. The manner (homicide, suicide, accidental, natural, therapeautic misadventure) may be impossible to determine.
Dadoc
I wonder what the dates on the scripts for the hydrocodone and oxycontin were, if the same doctor knew he was taking them at the same time, or if he went to the same pharmacist. It seems that a pharmacist would tell him, you can't take these two together, or the doctor would tell him to get rid of one. I wonder if he was double dipping on doctors, not telling one what another had prescribed, in order to keep getting more and differant drugs.
I wonder how long some of these drugs stay in your system...could you take a vicodan today, find its not taking care of the pain, and take a oxycontin tomorrow, thinking a stronger med would work?
Anyway....I wonder just what kind of pain, and what from, he had, that advil didn't work?
I'm impressed too msk. ED sounds like a pharmacist sometimes.
Found the Kennedy Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_J._Kennedy
I'll just use the Wiki entry rather thatn the mult media links.
Dadoc
I used to volunteer at a harm reduction/needle exchange when I was younger, so I have interacted with thousands of junkies and you tend to pick up little bits of drug wisdom. I have also spent way too much time reading the PDR.
My mistake. Sorry, Jen. I am having a less than awesome day.
Apologies all around.
Also, I had a friend die this way. She was young and on a lot of prescription drugs. She was being treated for a number of things at the time. Her death was sudden and very, very tragic.
It IS entirely possible to overdose this way. Just because a bunch of drugs were found in his system doesn't mean it was intentional. I really don't believe he did this on purpose. Perhaps his judgement was clouded due to all the prescription drugs, but I don't feel he did this on purpose.
I am absolutely certain my friend didn't intentionally kill herself. I think she may have been unaware of the dangers involved, which is precisely what Heath Ledger's father is suggesting.
Zodak:
1) Don't make assumptions about what I may or may not be familiar with regarding pharmacology.
2) My problem was the placement of the quotes. Now that I have been so roundly admonished to "move on" by the editor of this article, I will just say this: it is not the editor/author's place to editorialize regarding the subject, if it is being presented as a straight news item. A year in the trenches as an editor on my high school newspaper taught me that much. That is all.
3) I'm glad the cat is out of the bag regarding Mr. Ledger's death. We should "move on" from this story now. There is nothing else to report, and I have nothing to apologize for (ahem, mihow).