Im on the drug that killed Heath Ledger
March 4th 2008 12:52
I was shocked and saddened when i first heard that Heath Ledger died from an overdose, but what shocked me more in the weeks after when all the facts unravelled was exactly what he overdosed on.
Heath Ledger overdosed on a lethal combination of prescription medications and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. His toxicology report showed oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. The drugs indicated are the generic names for the painkiller OxyContin, painkiller Vicodin, anti-anxiety drug Valium, sleep aid Restoril, anti-anxiety medication Xanax and sleep aid Unisom, respectively.
I personally take Endone (oxycodone), Ducene (diazepam), Temaze (temazepam), and Restavit (doxylamine), all Australian brands, due to severe pain from a back injury. So i can personally testify as to how difficult these drugs are to acquire in Australia even with a legitimate medical reason. Doctors will not prescibe opiates or sleeping pills to new patients so you can only have scripts written from your one nominated treating doctor who holds all your medical records, and it often requires carting around medical records if you are out of town. Doctors monitor the amount dispensed and check they dont clash with other medications. Pharmacys will not dispense "controlled substances" even with a prescription if the pharmacist is not familiar with the patient or the doctor prescribing it.
Apparently Heath did not have an excessive amount of any one of the drugs in his system, it was just a cumulative effect of the combination of medications. This is a scary wake-up call to those of use using a variety of prescription medications. It can seem a bit foreign when a celebrity overdoses on heroin but when the cause of the overdose is sitting innocently in a little bottle or packet in your bathroom cabinet it is suddenly quite unsettling.
I have heard from friends who have holidayed in the USA that "harcore" medications are much easily dolled out in america and a visitor can readily obtain opiates for minor ailments.
The federal Drug Enforcement Agency investigated two doctors that Heath was a patient of in California and Texas but cleared them of any wrong-doing. The doctors had prescribed him other medications in the past but were not responsible for the drugs that he injested on the day that he died.
The drugs that killed Heath Ledger have an unknown source. They may have been obtained illegally. But they almost certainly were recommended negligently. Heath Ledger may have been anxious or depressed but it is unlikely he would have any injury that would require such a variety of heavy duty painkillers and sleeping pills. It seems to me that Heath sadly missed out on the care and caution that should go hand in hand with a medical consultation, instead he has been issued prescription after prescription hand over fist when what he really needed was some good advice and a safety net.
Heath Ledger was a fine and talented actor and his death is a devastating loss
RIP Heath Ledger (April 4, 1979 January 22, 2008)
Selected films:
10 Things I Hate About You
The Patriot
Monster's Ball
A Knight's Tale
Brokeback Mountain.
Heath Ledger overdosed on a lethal combination of prescription medications and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. His toxicology report showed oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. The drugs indicated are the generic names for the painkiller OxyContin, painkiller Vicodin, anti-anxiety drug Valium, sleep aid Restoril, anti-anxiety medication Xanax and sleep aid Unisom, respectively.
I personally take Endone (oxycodone), Ducene (diazepam), Temaze (temazepam), and Restavit (doxylamine), all Australian brands, due to severe pain from a back injury. So i can personally testify as to how difficult these drugs are to acquire in Australia even with a legitimate medical reason. Doctors will not prescibe opiates or sleeping pills to new patients so you can only have scripts written from your one nominated treating doctor who holds all your medical records, and it often requires carting around medical records if you are out of town. Doctors monitor the amount dispensed and check they dont clash with other medications. Pharmacys will not dispense "controlled substances" even with a prescription if the pharmacist is not familiar with the patient or the doctor prescribing it.
Apparently Heath did not have an excessive amount of any one of the drugs in his system, it was just a cumulative effect of the combination of medications. This is a scary wake-up call to those of use using a variety of prescription medications. It can seem a bit foreign when a celebrity overdoses on heroin but when the cause of the overdose is sitting innocently in a little bottle or packet in your bathroom cabinet it is suddenly quite unsettling.
I have heard from friends who have holidayed in the USA that "harcore" medications are much easily dolled out in america and a visitor can readily obtain opiates for minor ailments.
The federal Drug Enforcement Agency investigated two doctors that Heath was a patient of in California and Texas but cleared them of any wrong-doing. The doctors had prescribed him other medications in the past but were not responsible for the drugs that he injested on the day that he died.
The drugs that killed Heath Ledger have an unknown source. They may have been obtained illegally. But they almost certainly were recommended negligently. Heath Ledger may have been anxious or depressed but it is unlikely he would have any injury that would require such a variety of heavy duty painkillers and sleeping pills. It seems to me that Heath sadly missed out on the care and caution that should go hand in hand with a medical consultation, instead he has been issued prescription after prescription hand over fist when what he really needed was some good advice and a safety net.
Heath Ledger was a fine and talented actor and his death is a devastating loss
RIP Heath Ledger (April 4, 1979 January 22, 2008)
Selected films:
10 Things I Hate About You
The Patriot
Monster's Ball
A Knight's Tale
Brokeback Mountain.
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Comment by Harry
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Comment by Justicia
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Comment by Brenton
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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i just noticed i didnt answer any of the lovely people who commented this post . . . sorry, it was pretty much my first post and i was still feeling my way around how the orble system and controls worked
hi Harry,
i would expect doctors to know how drugd react with each other, especially when GPs really only prescibe a limited selection, maybe its too much to expect but it seems irresponsible to prescribe things willy nilly
i say a doco on health care the other day and Taiwan have a smart card that you need to access prescriptions which checks where else you have been and what youve been prescribed, i thought it seemed brilliant with regards to medical responsibility
hi Justica,
yes i find it scary that doctors dont know which medications are safe to be mixed . . . how many women do you see on high dose oral contraceptive pills AND high dose blood pressure medication? its just insanity!
i havent studied medicine myself but i presumed they would get some kind of training in pharmacology and the dangers of over medicating?
hi Brenton,
you have hit the nail on the head . . . and it really is unfortunate that that translation is far from true . . . when it comes to analgesics they are often very similar to illegal drugs anyway so it should all be monitored
thanks for the comments!
Comment by RubySoho
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It's the ultimate irony- drugs that are ostensibly designed to make you well are actually making people sick and killing them.
Are you a fan of Bill Maher? He does a good anti-Pharma rant here on his show 'Real Time"
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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haha thanks for the link, that was fantastic!
and i find whenever i view one youtube i end up being sucked in for nearly an hour watching video after video . . . there was a great bill maher and michael moore interview, then michael moore and bill oreilly and then bill oreilly vs well pretty much everyone, richard dawkins, rosie odonnel, dave letterman, even marilyn manson . . . the geraldo one was intense
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but back to what you were saying, no i havent been to the USA, some of my friends that are dancers and performers go to the USA sometimes so thats where i get my ideas about their drug availability . . . that and the movies of course! haha
hang on Ruby you have to watch this one too, its stephen colbert immitating bill oreilly while bill is interviewing him
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but back on topic again, im liking bill maher more and more, the anti-pharma rant was spot on . . . nobody needs to be on five different kinds of pain killers and sedatives at the same time, its just overkill
thanks for the comment!
Comment by Vhalkirian
Also as someone pointed out, its one thing to see someone who OD'd on Heroin, Cocaine etc..but very scary to see someone who OD's on something that most people have had in the medicine cabinet at one time or another.
Personally the death of Heath Ledger hit a little close to home for me, I too suffer from Chronic Insomnia...sometimes I sleep maybe 2-3 hours/night over several days etc...and have some of the meds that he was taking now. So far I have avoided taking them, especially after his death. To me the risks are not really worth the benefit that I might get from taking the meds. Most meds are only short-term cure and not meant to be long term care. The longer you take them the less effective they become or even worse addictive.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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thanks for the info, i had not heard about his back injury before . . . poor thing, i can relate!
i bet alot of people on prescription meds cut back and re-assessed what they were doing after Ledgers death
and you are right, sedatives become less effective with long term use
Ledgers death was a very scary wake-up call to me, and im still very sad that hes gone
Comment by Anonymous
About a month ago I took my pain killers like I normaly do but I had a severe headache and couldn't see because the pain was so bad. I thought I took panadol but accidently took Panadene forte- high codeine pain killer not a too bad if your not on Endone. I got so sick , vomiting, couldn't breathe, blood pressure droped all because the combanation of meds did not match well, .My kids rang my sister who told them to call an ambulance (she is a nurse and her husband is head nurse of emergency dep)
Such a small and unpredictable can and does happen. It sure did make me think twice now what I take and I also ask the Chemist for there advise also,
Its so easly can be done because it happened to me and I am so careful!!