Drug Agents Grill Two MDs in Ledger OD
The two doctors are suspected of prescribing drugs to actor Heath Ledger.
Feb. 28, 2008— -- Federal drug enforcement agents are in Houston, Texas and California, grilling two doctors who are suspected of supplying painkillers that were mixed into the cocktail of prescription drugs that killed Hollywood star Heath Ledger, DEA sources told ABC News.
In the days after Ledger's Jan. 22 death, the DEA subpoenaed New York Police Department records and the city's medical examiner's report, federal and city officials told ABC News at that time. Agents used those records to examine where Ledger had obtained his medications, which included painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs. They are now questioning the doctors and examining the doctors' records to determine whether the medications for Ledger were improperly prescribed.
"Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine," the spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, Ellen Borakove, said in a statement released on Feb. 6.
According to the medical examiner's office, Ledger took "prescribed therapeutic doses...or less" of each medication he ingested. The medications, however, were not meant to be taken together. The cumulative effect was that the actor's brain stem function that controls breathing was impaired, and Ledger "fell asleep and never woke up."
Ledger, 28, was found dead in his downtown Manhattan apartment with bottles of prescription drugs nearby.
"We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications," said the medical examiner.
"While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy," Heath Ledger's father, Kim Ledger, said at that time. "Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."