Feb 28, 2008 2:30 pm US/Eastern
Federal Drug Investigators Probe Ledger's Death
Ledger's Doctors May Have Illegally Prescribed Medication
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Actor Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication, the New York City medical examiner said.
Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
Federal drug investigators are trying to determine if two doctors illegally prescribed some of the drugs that led to actor Health Ledger's death.
According to published reports, the doctors, one in California and one in Texas, may have supplied the late actor with the powerful painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin.
Ledger died Jan. 22 of an accidental
prescription drug overdose in a Manhattan apartment.
The 28-year-old actor's death drew outpourings of grief from New York to Hollywood to Ledger's native hometown of Perth, a small and remote city on the verge of the Outback in Australia's southwest.
An initial autopsy on Ledger proved inconclusive, but blood and toxicology reports later showed that Ledger died from the effects of taking six types of painkillers and sedatives.
"Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine," medical examiner's spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a news release after the reports went public.
Oxycodone and Vicodin are both painkillers, diazepam and alprazolam are both anti-anxiety drugs, and temazepam and doxylamine are both commonly used for sleep.
"This cocktail the medical examiner has found in Heath Ledger's body is a cocktail of death," Lawrence Kobilinsky of John Jay College told CBS 2. "These six drugs are central nervous system depressants and that means they can result in respiratory problems and cardiac failure.
"These drugs are serious drugs, they are commonly prescribed but in combination they can be very deadly and that proved to be the case."
Law enforcement sources told CBS 2 earlier in the month that the Drug Enforcement Agency was investigating how he acquired the drugs.
The official report from the medical examiner says that "the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications."
The Australian-born actor, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in "Brokeback Mountain," was discovered by his masseuse in his SoHo apartment Jan. 22. During his last interview in November, he admitted he was having trouble sleeping while filming the upcoming "Batman" movie in which he plays "The Joker."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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