Doctors Under Investigation In Heath Ledger's Death
Two doctors are being investigated in the death of actor Heath Ledger. Federal drug authorities are looking into the drugs prescribed, because Heath's death was blamed on an accidental mixture of prescriptions:
The doctors - one in California, one in Texas - are believed to have supplied the "Brokeback Mountain" star with the powerful painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin, law enforcement sources said. Authorities want to know if the drugs were prescribed illegally. "It's an ongoing investigation," a law enforcement source told The News Tuesday. "It's not clear if there was any wrongdoing."The revelation came more than a month after the 28-year-old Australian heartthrob's naked body was found in his SoHo loft.
The city's medical examiner ruled Ledger died on Jan. 22 of an accidental overdose of six prescription drugs, including the two painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has subpoenaed the medical examiner's findings as part of its probe into the doctors, the sources said.
Do they always have to say he was found naked? Like that in and of itself is some sort of crime or weirdness. Lots of people sleep naked.
It may or may not be that these doctors are guilty of any wrongdoing. However, it is only prudent of physicians to check what prescription or OTC medications a patient is already taking, and writing new prescriptions accordingly or advising patients on the safety of taking one medication with another. Heath may or may not have told his doctors of any other medications he was taking. It may come out that he purposefully obtained the prescriptions without the doctors knowing of each other. Or, it might be as simple as he just didn't realize the dangers of taking one with the other.
Heath had fought a long battle with drug use, but by all accounts he was trying to get clean when he died, and illegal drugs played no part in his death. He also suffered from severe insomnia, which led him to take a prescription sleep aid that turned out to be not much help to him. Plus, at the time of his death, he was suffering from pneumonia, which undoubtedly weakened his immune system.
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