Gawker
Some of the details surrounding Heath Ledger's death yesterday have been a little murky, with conflicting reports from various media outlets. Let's answer some of your basic questions.Q. Did Ledger commit suicide? A. Police have changed their tune on that, saying his death appears to have been accidental. His family's statement described him as "life-loving." [SkyNews]
Q. Was Ledger found in the apartment of an Olsen twin? A. No. According to the Times, a masseuse (who had set up a massage table in Ledger's bedroom before trying to wake the dead man) used his cellphone to speed-dial Mary-Kate Olsen, who said she'd contact "some private security people." Calling Olsen again, the woman said she was calling 911. Security personnel raised by Olsen and city emergency workers arrived at the same time.
Q. Which medications were found in the apartment? A. At least six, including sleeping aids Ambien, Donormyl, Zoplicone and anti-anxiety meds Xanax and Valium. Three were prescribed in Europe, according to the AP. They were not, as was reported, "strewn around" his dead body, but in bottles and packaging in the bedroom, bathroom and rest of the apartment. According to the NYPD this afternoon, no illegal narcotics were found, even on a rolled-up $20 bill found in the apartment. [NYP]
Q. Where was his body found? A. NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne said he was found naked, unconscious and face down at the foot of a bed, which police sources tell the Post was just a mattress on the floor. When the building's superintendent arrived at Ledger's fourth-floor apartment after being called by his housekeeper, the place was crammed with cops and the actor's covered body was being moved off the bed. [Daily Telegraph(AU)]
Q. What did his autopsy, performed this morning, indicate? A. The results were inconclusive, further tests to indicate a cause of death will take another ten days. TMZ reported last night that Ledger may have had pneumonia. [CNN]
Comments
I usually call Ashley for 911 clearance.
it's amazing to see how significantly less sensational the story has become in a matter of hours. it's as though we initially were given the fox version, and are now getting the cspan version.
While it is not appropriate to speculate on the cause of death before the autopsy results are complete I think it is worth mentioning that it is highly unlikely that he had legal medical prescriptions to so many different types of anti-anxiety medications and sleep aids. It is more likely he got them on the internet (in which case the bottles would still be in his name). It is also a medical fact that you should not take sleeping aids if you have pnemounia because you may end up too sleepy to release the fluid buildup in your lungs. That seems to me the most likely cause of death.
Is Gawker working from Sundance? The 10:30 start time is curious.
Wonder when Barbara Butcher will reveal what "inconclusive" means...
What I'm confused about is, with all the horror stories circulating about the 'sleeping pill' Ambien, why is it still on the market?
If he had pneumonia and was taking a combination of those meds, he may have suffocated. Your breathing is already impaired by pneumonia, and the others slow down your system, so you are essentially starved for oxygen. I also wonder if he was on Zithromax, which attacks bacteria and sends you into a stupor the first day you take it.
An "inconclusive" autopsy usually means that there was no knife sticking out of the body. Toxicology will reveal the drug cocktail that killed this man.
@tonythetiger: Going to take a wild guess that you don't have a lot of experience with psychopharmacology, which is a happy thing!
She must be a good, gentle masseuse to not break the Olsens frail bones. Anybody have her digits?
That concludes today's lesson for Law & Order 101
duh-duh! (L&O sound)
So whose apartment was it? Was Ledger dating the Olsen? Could be a coincidence, but I know someone rich that uses most of those meds (you change them around w/ the hope you don't become addicted to any one in particular) to come down from uppers -- and gets massages to help ease the strung out badness of the next day. Sad.
@mathnet:
I'm prescribed all of those things and I'm not really that extreme of a case at all. Antidepressants, anti anxiety meds and Ambien are all pretty innocuous and definitely go together.
@tonythetiger: No reason he couldn't have gone to several doctors to get prescriptions, though. It's scary seeing drugs I have been/am currently prescribed on the list of his tox panel, and sad to realize that his death (while drug-related) may have been completely accidental.
@yanee: Sorry, supposed to be @tonythetiger
@Nellicat: "Inconclusive" also tends to mean that no obvious medical conditions were found - no pneumonia, no heart disease, etc.
Was this guy using Rush Limbaugh as a pharma consultant?
@mathnet: Well, I think either of them could mobilize the hobo army whose uniform they wear to come to the rescue.
gotta say as a happily medicated person with depression - this collection of meds isn't that odd. and, when you've got depression, sleeping difficulties are common. when i don't sleep my depression symptoms get worse and it's a nasty cycle. i'm not a terribly hard partying person, but i've certainly combined ambien, alcohol and pot in a desperate attempt to sleep. and lived thru it. but i didn't have pnuemonia....poor matilda.
@tonythetiger: Clearly you know nothing about recreational presciption drug use and how easy it is to get scrips. People don't actually buy drugs off the internet, silly!
@theobviouschild: Because it is awesome.
@theobviouschild: Because if you only take one and go right to bed, it is very effective. At least that's my experience. I have heard some of those "I emailed people and didn't know it until the morning" tales from a friend, who then admitted that she took and it and "did some stuff around the house"--not recommended.
@mathnet: OK.
@tonythetiger: I have all those medications in my apartment and they weren't nefariously obtained through trickery or the internet for recreational use. They're all legitimate prescriptions from IRL doctors.
@tonythetiger: Really, that's my medicine cabinet during a light, stress-free month. All legal and above-board, I might add.
Seriously, those meds are not that unusual and can be taken together. Moreover, if he'd ordered pills over the net, they do NOT come in scrip bottles. Xanax and other benzos are commonly used in conjunction with sleeping aids like Ambien. If alcohol and antibiotics factor into the equation, that's another story. It's actually very difficult to off yourself with pills. You have to know the exact combo and dosage to take; if you swallow a handful and hope for the worst, your body usually ends up rejecting the meds via vomiting. 12 years of therapy teaches you something. . .
I thought all famous Australians died from erotic asphyxiation if on land and a barb from a stingray through the chest if at sea.
I've heard that he was an occasional heroin user - my intuition tells me he had a taste then took some sleepers and perhaps a mix of others which caused him to overdose.
Nobody kills themself before a massage. That's just a fact.
@minx: It was his apartment. Apparently the Olsen involvement stems from the friendship of the housekeeper who found Ledger's body and Ashley's bodyguard. The housekeeper called the bodyguard when she found Ledger's body.
Now that I've typed it out, it sounds really fucking shady.
I still blame the Olsens. It's irrational and I can't help it. "Living around the block, actually" sounds like a suspicious alibi to me.
And they're so rich, it would figure they'd have a rolled 20 buck bill to spare.
It's a recession people!
I'm just glad that my personal pharmacopeia and I seem to be dreadfully common. One Ambien, though? That's not even worth a yawn, most nights.
Heartbreaking and tragic...I just hope that the fact that there were anti-anxiety meds around doesn't give Tom Cruise fodder to spew anti-meds crap...
@lionel-mandrake: Can I have some?
TONYTHETIGER wrote...
> I think it is worth mentioning that it is highly
> unlikely that he had legal medical prescriptions to
> so many different types of anti-anxiety medications
> and sleep aids.
OK, maybe worth mentioning... but whether or not the medications were legally obtained isn't terribly relevent. The legality of a drug doesn't correlate very closely with whether or not it's dangerous.
It's more common for the legal status of a drug to be determined by political power plays, than an intelligent consideration of its dangers. It's politicians who make drugs illegal, not scientists or doctors.
Stuart
[stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com]
@werewolf: Yeah people do buy drugs on the internet. I buy anti-inflammatories from Canada. With legal scrips of course. They cost 25% of what they cost in the USA.
@rtisovec: Wow, what a choice. I sure as hell wouldn't want to go by sea.
"Some private security people"? Very odd. Are the Olsens really Cheneys?
@Lolagyrl: Totally, it isn't weird at all to have all of those meds. Especially if you are trying to figure out what works--you take something for a few weeks, you still can't sleep, you get a new scrip but still have the old stuff.
@triplethreat: I think I have twice that many different psychpharmalogicalistic substances lying around my apartment right now. I just can't bring myself to throw the old ones away. That's thousands of dollars down the toilet!
@Minou. Exactly. But don't throw them down the toilet! Bad for enviro! There are pharmacies that do takeback programs and then I think the extras go to ppl in need. Excuse my rant, sorry
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