Heath Ledger overdose death
From Drug Rehab Wiki
On January 28, 2008, the young, attractive, and critically-acclaimed actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his fourth floor Manhattan apartment. Ledger had just completed work on his supporting role in the blockbuster film The Dark Knight as the maniacal villain The Joker, a role which posthumously earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, countless other awards, and international praise.
For multiple reasons, the celebrity’s death was a public shock. Ledger was only 28 years old at the time, he had a beautiful baby girl with his former girlfriend and actress Michelle Williams, and he had already attained honorable recognition for his work and was continuing to impress his peers and audiences alike. His sudden death initially appeared to be suicide, but an investigation would reveal that his tragic death was entirely accidental with no evidence of foul play.
Ledger was in the midst of production on Terry Gilliam’s film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which he played the leading role. Like every role Ledger accepted, he fully immersed himself in the world of the character and the film. He was known to tirelessly work on perfecting his characters’ mannerisms, speech, behaviors, and thoughts. He was motivated to break free of any typecast roles that his youth and appearance typically placed him in during his early years, and had recently only selected roles that challenged his acting ability. It is said that his intense self-discipline caused him to develop sleeping difficulties such as recurring insomnia throughout filming production.
In a November 4, 2007 interview with New York Times, two and half months prior to his death, Ledger described his sleep deprivation and anxiety to reporter Sarah Lyall. “I stressed out a little too much,” he commented when relating his work during production of the film I’m Not There, which chronicles singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s life through multiple characters. Ominously, Lyall writes: “‘Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.’ One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.” Of Ledger’s performance during filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, costar Christopher Plummer commented in Entertainment Weekly that Ledger appeared to be suffering from a “terrible, lingering bug in London, and he couldn't sleep at all…I thought he'd probably got walking pneumonia.”
After the police investigation and witness interviews, Ledger’s death was determined by the New York City Medical Examiner’s office to be caused by an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Specifically, the ME’s office reported that his death was caused by “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine.” Ledger’s doctors in Los Angeles and Houston were discovered to have legitimately and in good faith prescribed Ledger sleep aids and anti-anxiety medications for his insomnia and anxiety symptoms. Yet the prescription drugs that were found to be responsible for Ledger’s death were believed to have been obtained illegally. Ledger had taken the narcotic painkillers OxyContin and Vicodin, anti-anxiety medications Valium and Xanax, and sleep aid medications Unisom and Restoril. His death was ruled as the result of prescription drug abuse. Although each drug was consumed at individual safe levels, their combination caused a lethal effect and shut down the brain, heart, and respiratory system.
On the day of his death, Ledger’s housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, arrived at the apartment around 12:30 pm. She reported that she observed Ledger sleeping in his bed and could hear him snoring. Around 2:45 pm, his masseuse Diana Wolozin arrived to give Ledger a massage; when she found Ledger to be unresponsive in his bed, she used Ledger’s cell phone to call his friend, actress Mary-Kate Olsen, for help. Olsen, who was in California at the time, said she would send her own private security guards to the apartment. Wolozin called Olsen again, stating she feared Ledger to be dead; then she called 911. A 911 operator guided Wolozin in administering CPR to Ledger, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. Around 3:30 pm, emergency medical technicians arrived, almost at the same time as Olsen’s security guards. The EMT staff was also unable to revive Ledger after attempting CPR and use of a cardiac defibrillator, and Ledger was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:36 pm.
During much confusion and media blitz, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Manhattan’s District Attorney’s office decided to pursue the source of Ledger’s prescription drugs. Ledger’s friends, family, and associates were more than willing to assist the police with their investigation since all were very fond of Ledger and upset over his death.
However, Olsen—who was prominently involved in the day of Ledger’s death—refused to cooperate with investigators and remained silent for seven months. In August, it was reported the Olsen was refusing to speak to federal investigators without immunity from the DA’s office in fear of prosecution; Olsen’s attorney then made a statement that Olsen “had nothing whatsoever to do with the drugs found in Heath Ledger's home or his body, and she does not know where he obtained them.” Investigators had already obtained a subpoena for Olsen to testify before a grand jury, but on August 8, Manhattan’s DA’s office closed its investigation and did not file any charges. The source of Ledger’s illegal prescription drugs remains officially unknown.
