Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Heath Ledger Remembrance Forum
Heath Ledger's Accidental Overdose - Discussion Thread (Was: Breaking News)
MaineWriter:
I suspect that there were multiple doctors prescribing the medications, not just one. One of the early reports said that some of the prescriptions were filled in England, and others in the US.
It is a pretty common scenario for someone to say, "I have a prescription for X and it's not working really well" so the physician writes a prescription for Y which is in the same class of medications. Diazepam, temazepam, and alprazolam are all in the same class of anti-anxiety medications. (Their brand names are Valium, Restoril, and Xanax.) Oxycodone and hydrocodone are in the same class of opioid analgesics (Common brand names are Oxycotin and Vicodin, although as Louise noted there are different forumlations oxycodone on the market with different brand names.) The last one, doxylamine, is an antihistamine which can be used for short-term treatment of insomnia.
Whether Heath was not forthcoming with medications he was receiving or the doctors mis-prescribed them we'll probably never know. Anyway you look at it, it's a tragedy.
L
Brown Eyes:
This report is so depressing and heartbreaking. :(
But, at least we have an answer it would have been so hard if the results came back as inconclusive again.
:(
louisev:
I for one am relieved
a) that they were able to determine a cause of death
b) that the cause of death was not heroin or cocaine overdose. If only because the pain and scandal that would arise from it would be far greater than taking too many prescriptions. Also, I may be wrong on this, if there was evidence of cocaine or heroin abuse, such as has been widely rumored about him, I think they would have found evidence of that as a contributing factor in his death. But that is speculation on my part - I know little about heroin or cocaine abuse.
mvansand76:
I'm still too baffled to even think straight. I can't understand why I feel relieved. I guess I'm relieved because, as I thought, it wasn't hard drugs that killed him and he didn't kill himself. On the other hand, his death could have been prevented. That makes me so angry. I don't know at whom.
Sandy:
--- Quote from: louise van hine on February 06, 2008, 12:03:15 pm ---that the cause of death was not heroin or cocaine overdose.
--- End quote ---
I, rather stupidly, was hoping they would come back and say they got it wrong: that the painkillers were in fact paracetomol and ibuprofen and he had died of natual causes. I must now cling to the idea that he didn't knowingly go out and buy them himself, he just went on a 'bad' Doctor's advice.
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