Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Heath Ledger Remembrance Forum
Heath Ledger's Accidental Overdose - Discussion Thread (Was: Breaking News)
Lumière:
--- Quote from: Phillip Dampier on February 06, 2008, 12:50:06 pm ---...
Good people die from prescription drug issues every day, so I am less interested in finding fault and more interested in finding ways to prevent future tragedies.
--- End quote ---
Thank you Phillip.
Sadly, Heath is not the first and will not be the last to go this way.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Verona on February 06, 2008, 12:58:17 pm ---None of the drugs were taken in concentrations high enough to be lethal on their own, the report said, but the combination was deadly.
Which is why I wish they would not use the term "abuse." Abuse suggests that he took more than he was supposed to.
A very likely scenario: Heath went to different doctors (which is common for people who travel a lot), told them what he had been taking and said it didn't work for him, so they prescribed something different. The doctors may not have realized that he would keep taking the one he said didn't work anymore, so they didn't advise him about the interactions. So Heath, in his mind, had disclosed what else he was taking... but wasn't told they'd be dangerous to take together, so he assumed--as they were all both prescribed and disclosed--that they were all safe in combination.
This is what I choose to believe.
--- End quote ---
I agree this is quite likely. The longer I work on the fringes of the medical profession, the more I come to understand that doctors are not gods. The sad lesson here for everyone may be that it is our own responsibility to make sure our doctors know all the medications we are taking--over-the-counter stuff, too--and to ask what is or is not safe to be taken together.
belbbmfan:
--- Quote from: Meryl on February 06, 2008, 01:02:13 pm ---He probably believed what all of us would have thought, too. That a young, strong, basically healthy man would not be in any real danger of succumbing to over-medication, especially when the drugs themselves were not seen to be particularly dangerous in themselves.
--- End quote ---
I think that's exactly it, Meryl. They don't seem to be dangerous. And who reads (or understands) the small print that is put on the bottle anyway.
karen1129:
Oxycontin and Vicodin are powerfully addicting drugs.
Especially Oxycontin. The abuse of these two drugs is probably
more common then most people realize.
My brother, who had back problems and surgery took these drugs for
many years. And.... there came a time when the doctor's refused to
write him anymore prescriptions.
These two drugs are one of the most popular drugs on the illegal market right now.
They find a way to get them. Getting off these is very hard physically.
He finds them..... it ain't that hard.
Has he taken more then the prescribed dosage.... you bet. Do we worry.... yeah....
but he ain't always truthful with us.
I don't blame the doctors. They told him the risks and so did the pharmacist.
Verona:
And once again, it is important to note that none of the drugs found in his system were at a high enough level to indicate deliberate abuse. Take one of these, two of those, another one of those... curtains. I even read recently of a woman who died because she used a recommended numbing gel to prepare for hair removal treatment... she put it all over her legs and covered them with plastic wrap. It was too much for her system to ingest.
There are times when I have allergy problems and take an antihistamine. Then later on in the day, I get a bad headache, and unthinkingly take a few ibuprofen. I have epilepsy, so I take that at night, also unthinkingly. And then I feel awful and can't sleep, so I might take a couple of Tylenol PM.
So let's tally that up. Antihistamine. Ibuprofen. Anti-seizure drug. Tylenol. Sleep aid. All in one day, innocently taken at the proper dosage level, by one 108-lb woman. I'm probably lucky to be alive.
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