Letters to the Editor
-
I think....
he didn't stop breathing I think he actually suffocated. He was found face down. So he takes all those pills passes out with his face in the pillow and because he's so doped up his body doesn't automatically turn over and he can't breath.
-
It would be very comforting
to just attribute HL's death to his decadent lifestyle and his drug dependency because then we wouldn't have to worry about falling into the same situation in the article. Maybe it was all his fault. Fine. That's him we don't have to worry about anymore. The truth is though that lots of regular people get addicted to pain pills prescribed by their dentists or regular doctors. Just because it's happened to Anna Nicole and Heath Ledger doesn't mean it only happens to the unstable and the famous. There is a problem with the way we do medicine in this country, from kicking people out of hospitals the same day they have a mastectomy or a cholecystectomy to prescribing medicines contraindicated in certain patients. It happens. Doctors make mistakes. By all means, hold the Heath Ledgers of the world responsible for their actions, but not the people in real power, not the doctors, the pharmacists or the drug companies and definitely not the paper pushers. We're on our own completely and we know it.
-
I guess I'm extra cautious
because I always research a prescribed drug to the nth degree before taking it, and look for contraindications. I think doctors and pharmacists should do some of the work though-- not everyone has the resources to research something on their own.
-
Another clueless doctor writing out of his ass
When I was a pill-head (and speed-freak, and coke-addict and did I mention drinking every waking moment?), as well as dabbling in some hard drugs once in a while ... I always knew what level of toxicity I was dealing with. It's part of the job. You read the PDR and make sure you don't take two or three times the recommended highest dose on your maiden voyage with whatever drug.
After you establish the baseline dose and its effects, it's pretty easy to stay within the realm of the not-fatal going forward. Everybody miscalculates once in a while. Usually not fatal.
Ledger's problem was denial. On some level, he thought he was in control. He tried to do it alone. He had no hope, nonetheless. Surrounded by sycophants (I don't know how anyone gets sober in Hollywood) and spiraling down into the abyss of addiction, I think the poor guy gave up at some point, lost the will to live.
Suicide or not is not the question. But there is no one else, besides himself, responsible for his death. Blame is irrelevant and pointless.
Heath Ledger went into that gentle night as most do when they have fallen that far: alone.
Very sad. Who knows: maybe his death has jarred or will jar some addicts out of their respective insanity. That would be the only good to come out of this.
Well, maybe that Heath Ledger is no longer in pain ... that might be a good thing, from a certain point of view. But what a loss.
-
Cold medicines
Sometimes its just a doctor that doesn't seem to care. My son in law was in a hopital for a painful but not life threatening surgery. He had a prescription Zanaz before going in, had surgery the doctor gave him Valium, VicodenES 24 hr dosage in 12 hours along with a morphine pump, and IV phenergen, the last dose of phenergen was given when he had extreme pain and nurse or doctor never bothered to think that maybe he wasn't giving himself the morphine, because he wasn't clear headed. The nurse heard him snoring loudly and that didn't register either and they found him in the hospital room 4 hours after that last shot. He was dead and they could not revive him.He didn't use anything stronger than aspirin until he started on the zanax 4 days before surgery.
-
pricilla
I'm so sorry for your loss. I've had problems with the medical profession too, but fortunately never lost anyone. Your story is so sad. About the snoring, often when people are dying they have what are called Cheyne-Stokes respirations which was probably the loud snoring. It has to do with the nervous system and respiration.
-
Balance
A timely and well-written article. Thank you Dr. Zaroff and Salon.
How to balance, then, that gently persuasive medical information with the bulk of comments here asserting that Ledger was an addict and that, therefore, he "must have known"?
Firstly: no drugs or paraphernalia were found at his house and no evidence of drug use on his body. Heroin addiction leaves, pardon the pun, tracks. Considering the impossibility of a police department anywhere keeping a secret like that, I'd say that proves there wasn't any addiction.
Secondly: what are the sources? Yes, you guessed it, third-hand innuendo printed in The Sun, and The Mirror, two British tabloids with -- how to say this politely -- less than stellar records for solid, non-sensational reportage.
Thirdly: consistency. What to make of the opinion of someone (to use one example from the comments) who believes every word printed in The Sun, but also claims that they read and differentially act on every pill-bottle onion-skin? That might be the one case in history where believing everything you read was actually of benefit to someone!
-
Dosing of OTC drugs
@KellyQ and Amerigo:
Upon moving to Spain from the US, I was shocked to learn about the differences in OTC dosing. The normal amount of ibuprofen (Advil and Motrin brands in the US) here is 600mg every 6 hours, whereas in the US each pill contains only 200mg and is recommended every 4-6 hours. Acetaminophen/Paracetamol (Tylenol in the US) is given here most often in 500mg or 1g, every 6 hours; regular-strength Tylenol contains 330mg and extra-strength has 500mg.
So, no, I don't think that dosing should be left completely up to the individual consumer, especially for "bigger" drugs, but I do think that, as KellyQ found, sometimes the recommended doses are not the absolute maximum you can take. Would a member country of the EU be knowledgeably poisoning its citizens by allowing doses that are too high? I don't think so.
The logical consequence of this, then, would be for each consumer to force his/her doctor or pharmacist to explain possible interactions and/or maximum doses. I personally have no problem not moving from the doctor's chair until she's answered all my questions, even after she's called for the next patient to enter. It's her job to help and inform me, and if she can't get that done in the 10 minutes (!) allotted to each patient, she'll just have to be a little behind in schedule. (There are often delays of up to two hours to see the doctor, with an appointment, so it's not as though I'm personally causing problems in the system, or denying other patients their time.) There is nothing wrong with insisting on being properly informed!