Heath Ledger's Accidental Overdose - Discussion Thread (Was: Breaking News)

[moremojo]

There's a big difference IMO between being a drug abuser and someone trying desperately to sleep.

I think part of the problem here is a semantic one, and that people are misunderstanding one another. I suspect that from a medical professional's perspective, taking a drug for a purpose or to an extent for which it was not intended is seen as abuse, and that the motives are considered, if at all, as secondary in reaching that conclusion. This is how I'm interpreting the presence of the word "abuse" in the report. Essentially, that is suggesting that all those drugs should not have been together in one person at one time, and that a person consciously ingesting all those substances at once or in sequence so that they could act together in a potentially (if unintentionally) lethal way was arguably abusing them.

[opinionista]

I want to clear up that what I mean by desperate measures is for example, when Ambien did not work, Heath went ahead and took something stronger. Hasn't it happened to you with headaches for example? You take two tylenols and it doesn't go away so you go ahead and take another or try advil. I think it was something like that.

[Ellemeno]

Is there a report of the actual amounts, or concentrations, of these drugs in his system?  I would like someone who knows how to interpret that to tell us their opinion. 

My disappointment [not the right word, not sure what is, right now] now is with Heath.  He was a very intelligent man, and he surely must have known some of the bare minimum info on those drugs.  I know that his directors loved him, and felt a special connection with him, but to the film industry, he was a commodity required to make a money-making film, like a camera, or a microphone, or the lumber required to build a set.  But even more necessary to keep working, because cameras and lumber are replaceable, and big stars are one of a kind.  So a film industry that wants to pull in the money would keep him working, and commodify him.  Very short-sighted, but raking money in often is these days.

So I don't really hold the set doctors or any other doctors too responsible here.  It was up to Heath to act responsibly for his own safety and well-being.

Heath was young (and thus possibly still in the "I'm immortal" stage), extremely fit and physically courageous ("I can handle this, I'd like to try.").  He was highly creative and brimming with ideas he wanted to accomplish (the music videos, managing Grace Woodroofe, preparing to direct The Queen's Gambit, and who knows what, besides the films he was acting in).  He was pining for his daughter (and I believe that was agony for him).  He was crossing many time zones frequently (which is extremely depleting and confounding).  He was without a girlfriend (and I think he's demonstrated that he is happiest when in a relationship).

I can't imagine the stress he lived with.  I wish he could have found a balance between that time two years ago when he was self-reportedly just making lunch, washing the lunch dishes, making dinner, taking care of his girls, and the supersonic, hyper-paced life he had been living recently. 

[louisev]

Is there a report of the actual amounts, or concentrations, of these drugs in his system?  I would like someone who knows how to interpret that to tell us their opinion. 

No, there isn't.  Such detail was likely to have been shared with the family however, which is probably why they made the statement about it not having been a "large amount of drugs."  It clearly didn't have to be a "large" amount, but a lethal mix.

[opinionista]

My disappointment now is with Heath.  He was a very intelligent man, and he surely must have known some of the bare minimum info on those drugs. 

Nobody is perfect Elle. A lot of highly intelligent people think prescription drugs are safe or honestly believe taking one more or mixing with other pills won't hurt. Heath was an actor not a doctor or a nurse or a chemist for that matter. Let's not judge him. It was an accident and it happens to a lot of people.

[RossInIllinois]

Well, as someone who also sometimes takes a combination of different medications on any given day, I suppose I should also call myself a "drug abuser." And if I should be found dead tomorrow from a deadly cocktail of, say, Benadryl, Advil, Tylenol PM and anti-seizure drugs because I had allergy problems which led to a headache which led to the inability to sleep, and I had no choice but to take my seizure drugs... well, I guess my family and friends will just have to accept the characterization that I "abused drugs."

My name is Verona, and I am a junkie.

If you are not taking the drugs as perscribed you are a drug abuser. If you call your Dr. and ask him what is safe to take you are not.  Just taking hand fulls of pills without talking to a Dr first is drug abuse.

[mvansand76]

Heath was young (and thus possibly still in the "I'm immortal" stage), extremely fit and physically courageous ("I can handle this, I'd like to try."). 

But that's just it, he wasn't feeling very well the past months, as he said, he suffered from insomnia and was extremely tired from only sleeping two hours a night.

[MaineWriter]

Is there a report of the actual amounts, or concentrations, of these drugs in his system?  I would like someone who knows how to interpret that to tell us their opinion. 

The medical examiner promised a bare minimum report (no time of death) and that is what we got. I doubt that any further information will be forthcoming from that office.

I posted the image of it earlier in this thread.

L

[Ellemeno]

Well, I already want to rescind the word "disappointment" used in that way, because it is what it is, and you're completely write, natali, no one is perfect.  

And there is nothing like having drugs in one's system to derail one's intelligence and good sense.  

[Verona]

When you take something, and it appears not to work, you often take more... not realizing that just because you don't feel any different doesn't mean the chemicals you just took don't exist in your body. I think it's a psychological thing, that if you don't feel any different, the pill you just took "had no effect," so it's safe to take more. I mean, look at the words we use to describe this... we say we've become "immune" to the drug, which means they don't affect us. But they DO, whether we feel it or not. If you take Ambien every night, at some point that pill will stop working. It's human nature--not irresponsibility--to try two because you think one "didn't do anything." I think that was probably the case here. The idea that pills that didn't make him feel any different just magically disappeared in his body, and it was OK to take a different one.

Please tell me that made some sense.