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AUTOPSY: DANIEL'S TISSUES NOT TESTED FOR CHLORAL HYDRATE
Editorial
© 2007 The Houston Chronicle
Mar 31 2007

Dr. Joshua Perper, the chief medical examiner in Broward County in Florida, said he would have never sent Anna's tissues out for testing for Chloral Hydrate because the drug is such an antiquated sleeping aid. As a matter of course, he said, coroners just don't check for it anymore. The only reason he tested for it is that a bottle of the drug was found on the scene of the death.

Prior to the testing for Chloral Hydrate and subsequent discovery of the drug in Anna's tissues, Dr. Perper was prepared to label Anna's Cause of Death as "Natural," brought about by the "natural process of disease," such disease being infection of the blood with intestinal flu as a contributing factor.

However, once the test for Chloral Hydrate confirmed the drug was in Anna's tissues, Dr. Perper had a new piece of the puzzle and, accordingly, changed the cause of death from "Natural" to "Accidental."

Dr. Eroshevich, Anna Nicole's friend and psychiatrist, wrote the prescription for Chloral Hydrate in Howard K. Stern's name, but the drug was intended for Anna Nicole Smith. The therapeutic dosage was written as 2 tablespoons at bedtime.

Toxicology tests revealed Anna had 300% the amount of the therapeutic dosage (or 6 tablespoons) in her system at time of death.

If the bottle of Chloral Hydrate had never been found, the test for the sleeping aid never would have been conducted, thereby leaving Anna's Cause of Death as "Natural."

Last September, a Bahamian coroner conducted an autopsy on Daniel's remains. Because the sudden death of a 20-year-old is automatically labeled as "suspicious," the coroner related as much in a statement to the press and that she, acting as Magistrate, would be holding an Inquest into Daniel's death in October.

In the Bahamas, the coroner is also a Magistrate. It is the Magistrate's duty to preside over all Inquest hearings. She slated the Inquest for October.

Anna's attorney, upon hearing the Bahamian coroner's assertion that Daniel's death was "suspicious," lambasted the coroner's statement, claiming that, because the Bahamian coroner was not an investigator, she had acted beyond her scope as coroner and had no business releasing such an inflammatory statement.

The chief magistrate removed the coroner from Daniel's case. It would now be up to the chief magistrate as to whether an Inquest would be held at all. He also saw to it that the coroner's autopsy findings remained sealed.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, known in some circles as "coroner for hire" and "coroner to the stars," was hired by Anna Nicole to conduct an independent autopsy on her son. His findings revealed that Daniel died from a lethal combination of three drugs found in his system: Lexipro, Zoloft (both anti-depressants) and methadone (a pain killer). Wecht reported that the concentration of all three drugs was at low levels.

Perhaps due to the tremendous media focus and public outcry in the Bahamas, the chief magistrate decided to go forward with an Inquest into Daniel's death. Moreover, the chief magistrate said he would preside over the Inquest himself. The Inquest was to begin last week.

The autopsy results from Daniel's original autopsy have yet to be made public. However, rumors have surfaced alleging that the amount of methadone that Dr. Wecht reported in Daniel's system was profoundly under reported. Dr. Wecht vehemently denies the rumors, calling them "utterly ridiculous" and the result of "media speculation spun out of control."

Additionally, Dr. Wecht's findings failed to note the presence of several other drugs that were supposedly noted in the original autopsy report. The contents of the original report are rumored to be revealed at Daniel's Inquest

When Dr. Wecht was asked on a recent talk show what he thought about Vergie Arthur's wish to have Daniel's remains exhumed for further study, Dr. Wecht lost his cool. Ms. Arthur, Anna Nicole's mother, has suggested that a better explanation for her grandson's death would shed a new light on the investigation.

Dr. Wecht's position as an independent medical examiner would ordinarily afford him the inherent reputation of a disinterested party. However, his overt verbal attacks of Ms. Arthur on television appear to undermine that reputation. Rather than displaying the impartiality of a doctor, he has managed to paint himself as a man who is deeply and personally involved in the case and incapable of divorcing his emotional state of being from that of an academician embedded in scientific fact.

Apart from the facts that Dr. Wecht has dozens of indictments hovering over his head and was forced to leave his state job under the cloud of ethics violations, media outlets continue to hire him to offer his expert opinions. As if Dr. Wecht's scholarly reputation could possibly undergo further damage, his outbursts and apparent collusory ties to those that hired him appear to have ruined any chance he might have had of portraying himself as a credible consultant.

Consequently, the reliability Dr. Wecht's results from Daniel's autopsy report has been cast under a new and doubtful cloud. Renewed interest into whether a possible cover-up has occurred may prompt the exhumation of Daniel's remains to determine if, indeed, Dr. Wecht's findings are accurate and complete.

Anna Nicole's remains would not have yielded the chloral hydrate in her system if the bottle had not been found on the scene of her death. Dr. Wecht did not test Daniel's tissue for the presence of chloral hydrate. Dr. Wecht tested for and discovered traces of the drugs that were found in the hospital room where he died.