Heath Ledger Update

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danemodsandy

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Sad news, folks; Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose:

"“Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine...”

I figured this was it- accidental overdose due to forgetting what he'd taken already. It's the scenario every addict and alcoholic fears. Sad ending to what should have been a charmed life.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/heath-ledgers-death-is-ruled-an-accident/
 
This is the same thing that happened to my partner's niece about a year and a half ago. She was in her mid 30's. Nobody saw it coming but my partner and I knew she had a problem and were immediately confident that it was not an intentional suicide. She was the life of the party at any gathering and has been sorely missed for the past two holiday seasons, especially by her grandmother who played a big role in her early years. I know Heath's family is as stunned as we were and my thoughts are with them.
 
Gee, Restoril, Vicodin, Valium, and Xanax and NyQuil all at the same time. Pain relivers and tranquilizers obviously don't go together.
I still would have figured that others living on the edge would have gone from this kind of thing before Heath. Kind of shocking, really.
 
I'm wondering if Heath was having trouble dealing with the fact that his days of leading a "normal" life were over. I'd be pretty depressed if I couldn't dash out the the grocery store or run errands without being recognized or hounded by paparazzi. All the anonymity and privacy regular people like us enjoy without even a second thought completely evaporated for him and I think he still wanted to live that way. This goes with the territory when you're in the public eye but it could be that the reality of it was something he was having trouble coping with.
 
Nyquil

Contains quite allot of booze, which increases the sedation action of every single other drug listed. No wonder Mr. Ledger's housekeeper found him snorring away at first.

Pretty much figured as well it was an accidential overdose, just as the "Mother's Little Helper" song goes... one takes too many, forgetting when the last dose was, and that soon is the end of that.

Sometimes the hardest thing for patients in hospital to understand is why they cannot have another dose of pain, sleeping, or sedation medication within a given time frame. While it is hard for the nurse on duty to see someone in distress, rules are rule, and often even a telephone call to the attending or physican on duty to either increase or give another dosage meets with a "no".

Really sad thing about such overdoses is that there are usually no visable signs, unless one sees a mass of pills and other things such as booze by the nightstand of a heavily sleeping person and assumes the worst. If medical intervention is begun at once, the outcome can be good. However if a person is allowed to contiune along, they simply go to sleep and never wake up, sort of like being put down. Usually the cause of death is respiratory and or cardic arrest.

This is why so many people get upset when shows like Absolutely Fab, or Will and Grace make light of taking sleeping pills and such with booze. Both Patsy Stone and Karen Walker were famous for washing down Valium with booze. In real life that is NOT a good idea.

L.
 
Not Too Long After Anna Nicole Smith

We have yet another famous person perscribed way too many potentially dangerous meds. Will be interesting to know if the same physican perscribed all, or was Mr. Ledger seeing several doctors, each not knowing what the other was doing, or did they not even ask (they should have).

Oxycodone in particular is VERY hard to get scrips for these days from most physicans, as is Valium. Also why was someone taking both Valium and Xanax,which basically are the same class of medications. To this was added a sleeping pill (Restoril). Am willing to bet there someone is going to be having a good long close look at Mr. Ledger's doctor or doctors.

L.
 
It's hard enough to keep track of routine meds on one's own. A pill dispenser (Su-Sa) helps. I suppose the problem with the types of meds that Heath was taking was the "take as needed, do not exceed..." type of prescription. Easy to lose track, esp if the meds result in impaired cognition.

One wonders if people who achieve high celebrity in the entertainment fields need to have some sort of service that will provide them with oversight to help them deal with the sudden fame, wealth, and stresses. On the other hand, we saw what the paternalistic studio system did to people like Judy Garland - feeding her amphetamines and such to keep her going at a manic pace.
 
Rich, this probably belongs in the Landline thread but I shudder to think what Ma Bell (the new AT&T) would have its employees drinking all day long if a studio type of system were still allowed.

When an actor quickly rockets to stardom there should be some kind of buddy or mentor system available through the union that guides them through the pitfalls associated with a rapid rise to fame. Most people still don't have a clue about life when they're only 28 and need help in coping with it. Non pharmaceutical help.
 
You can bet the doctor or doctors under whose care Mr. Ledger was, are now taking a long close look at their files, as the Feds will soon be knocking on their doors. They might just face malpractice lawsuits from the Ledger family and or his estate. The deceased aside from being a rising film star, left a young daughter who will need to be provided for as well.
 
I think part of it must have to do with the conflicting demands of celebrity and wealth. Most people who are born into wealth seem to tend to try to keep as low a profile as possible, probably to discourage gold-diggers but also probably try to maintain their sanity. But when one comes into wealth as a result of plastering one's image all over the world, keeping a low profile becomes much more difficult. The downsides of sudden wealth are all too well known with regard to lottery winners. In some cases it's the worst thing that happened to them (hint: get the winnings in a lump sum and avoid having your name and image made public, if at all possible). But I'd be willing to give it a try ;-)
 
Ralph:

"When an actor quickly rockets to stardom there should be some kind of buddy or mentor system available through the union that guides them through the pitfalls associated with a rapid rise to fame."

I've long advocated this. The studios used to have some rudimentary help available for new contract players, but even that's gone now. There really should be some sort of Screen Actors' Guild programme to guide people who have landed parts above a certain level and who may be headed for stardom. Some basic financial training, how to cope with the press, etc.
 
He seemed to be a very angst ridden person, probably the place where his performances came from.

Anxiety and Depression are two sides of the same coin.
He was probably self medicating and forgetful of what he had taken, or confused about the time lapse betwwen his probably fitful sleeps. You can be a wound up depressed person or a stay in bed recluse in the same day.
Drugs make you feel better in slow way, but when you begin to feel better, you don't want that to end, so you take more.
 
sudsmaster:

"You'd think with all the self-help gurus and personal trainers out there, that someone would see a business opportunity in the care and feeding of nouveaux celebres."

Someone has seen it. His name is Sam Lutfi.

The problem for a lot of stars is that people try to move in on them, presenting themselves as best friends or even lovers, then becoming controlling in a negative way. It's very hard for someone who was doing bit parts and commercials before hitting the big time to spot people like this before it's too late.

Genuine friendships for stars are rare; I spent some time around a few when I was younger, and it was obvious that they don't get a lot of attention where there's no ulterior motive at work.
 
Quote from rp2813: "I'm wondering if Heath was having trouble dealing with the fact that his days of leading a "normal" life were over. I'd be pretty depressed if I couldn't dash out the the grocery store or run errands without being recognized or hounded by paparazzi. All the anonymity and privacy regular people like us enjoy without even a second thought completely evaporated for him and I think he still wanted to live that way. This goes with the territory when you're in the public eye but it could be that the reality of it was something he was having trouble coping with."

This rings true to me too. The paparazzi claim that once someone is famous, they are fair game for all the unwanted attention. The law seems to support this awful situation. I belive public figures such as actors an musicians need legal protection from intrusive attention. Just because someone is talented and has made a movie doesn't mean when they signed the contract to make the film, that they signed away all their rights to walk the street without harassment from dawn to dusk. Someone follows their "calling" and their life is made a misery because of it.

The hours worked on movie shoots seems obscene to me too. Form what media I have seen, Heath started taking prescription medication when he had trouble sleeping because he was doing sixteen hour days for weeks on end. The schedules need to be human-friendly.

chris
 
I'm living with severe depression (actually had it all my life) so, respectfully, I'd like to approach this from a different angle many might not have considered.

A lot of the medications mentioned actually can aggravate a depressive episode.

To be honest with you, when I read the report my first instinct (coming from someone who has grappled with depression my whole life, remember) was that Heath may have actually committed suicide, but taken care to do it in a way that would ensure his child and loved ones would be financially provided for.

The popular view is that, when you're suicidal, it's the ultimate expression of selfishness toward the ones you love.

But I can definitely attest to the fact that you spend AGES planning on how to take yourself from the world while minimizing the negative impact it will have on loved ones, including making elaborate plans, learning about legal ramifications, and so forth.

I have no way of knowing this was the case here, but I believe it's a definite possibility, especially since the fact that most of these prescription medications are deadly when combined is hardly a secret in our society, to a point where these drugs are well known by name.
 
Agreed that the drug a doctor prescribes can make things better or worse. A good friend of ours just lost his partner to cancer of the esophagus during the holidays. Not long after the cancer was diagnosed, both of them ended up on anti-depressants. Recently we stopped by to visit and our friend advised that he was originally prescribed Zoloft and it made him far too lethargic and unmotivated to do anything at all. He complained to his doctor and got switched to Celexa and said the difference was like night and day. He has energy and his trademark positive outlook is back. So what you are prescribed can make all the difference in the world. Rather than throwing more and more prescriptions at Ledger's problem, his doctor (presuming there was only one doctor treating him) should have kept trying different ones until they found the one that worked best for Heath. The right anti-depressant and a sleep aid were the only two pills Ledger probably needed but his doc gave him his own little home pharmacy. Ledger's death could have been avoided if the doc had asked the right questions before prescribing so many drugs that could be combined into a deadly cocktail.
 
I was under the impression that Heath got some of the drugs in Europe. Hence, he obviously sourced them from different doctors. That already indicates some form of drug-seeking behaviour - very suspect. You'd have to either be very out of it or a little simple to od on prescription drugs in the way that he did.

I can't help my cynical and jaded self. It is my firm belief (not that it matters), that Olsen's security guards got rid of the incriminating substances before the ambos got to the apartment. I bet that, when the masseuse turned up, there was probably a lot more on the table than the prescription drugs. Why did she panic and act so irrationally? The Coroner is under no obligation to make public all his findings and I am pretty sure that the release of such info is regulated by privacy laws.
 
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