Posted on 10/13/2007 6:14:00 PM PDT by fatima
Anna Nicole Smith, Seeking Justice #4
HIt and run .. same as Anna .. Always around and suddenly MIA around death!
Doctor: Drug Combo Killed Smith’s Son
By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR – 1 hour ago
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — The late son of reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith was killed by a combination of methadone and the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro — a cocktail that would have turned lethal after about five hours — a pathologist testified Monday.
The conclusion by Dr. Govinda Raju, who performed the official autopsy on Daniel Smith, confirms the findings of a private doctor who examined the 20-year-old’s body after he died Sept. 10, 2006 in the Bahamas.
On the third day of an inquest into Smith’s death, Raju said the young man had five other drugs in his system — including two that medical personnel used in an attempt to revive him after he collapsed while visiting his celebrity mother at a Nassau hospital.
The former Playboy playmate herself collapsed and died Feb. 8 in Florida from an overdose of drugs.
A lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith’s attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern, who was also in the hospital room the day Daniel died, said the drugs he was taking were all for either depression or back pain.
“Once you boil it all down, these were medicines treating either pain or depression,” said the attorney, Wayne Munroe.
Zoloft and Lexapro, which a U.S. doctor had prescribed, are antidepressants commonly used to treat anxiety and panic. Methadone is prescribed as a pain reliever and is also used to suppress symptoms drug users experience when going through withdrawal from heroin and other opiates.
Cyril Wecht, the doctor who performed a second autopsy at the request of Smith’s family, has said the other drugs in Daniel’s system included a third antidepressant, the sleep medication Ambien and an over-the-counter cold medicine. He said they did not play a role in his death.
Daniel Smith had bruises on his back and shoulders, but Raju said these could have been caused by medics who tried to revive him. Police have said there is no evidence of homicide.
Police believe he arrived in the Bahamas the night before his death and went directly to the hospital where his mother had given birth two days earlier. He spent the night in a room with his mother, Stern and newborn half-sister before losing consciousness.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Anna Nicole Smith's son died from lethal combo of drugs,
pathologist says © AP
2007-12-10 23:44:32 -
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - The late son of reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith was killed by a combination of methadone and the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro _ a cocktail that would have turned lethal after about five hours _ a pathologist testified Monday.
The conclusion by Dr. Govinda Raju, who performed the official autopsy on Daniel Smith, confirms the findings of a private doctor who examined the 20-year-old's body after he died Sept. 10, 2006 in the Bahamas.
On the third day of an inquest into Smith's death, Raju said the young man had five other drugs in his system _ including two that medical personnel used in an attempt to revive him after he collapsed while visiting his celebrity mother at a Nassau hospital.
The former Playboy playmate herself collapsed and died Feb. 8 in Florida from an overdose of drugs.
A lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith's attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern, who was also in the hospital room the day Daniel died, said the drugs he was taking were all for either depression or back pain. «Once you boil it all down, these were medicines treating either pain or depression,» said the attorney, Wayne Munroe.
Zoloft and Lexapro, which a U.S. doctor had prescribed, are antidepressants commonly used to treat anxiety and panic. Methadone is prescribed as a pain reliever and is also used to suppresses symptoms drug users experience when going through withdrawal from heroin and other opiates.
Cyril Wecht, the doctor who performed a second autopsy at the request of Smith's family, has said the other drugs in Daniel's system included a third antidepressant, the sleep medication Ambien and an over-the-counter cold medicine. He said they did not play a role in his death.
Daniel Smith had bruises on his back and shoulders, but Raju said these could have been caused by medics who tried to revive him. Police have said there is no evidence of homicide.
Police believe he arrived in the Bahamas the night before his death and went directly to the hospital where his mother had given birth two days earlier. He spent the night in a room with his mother, Stern and newborn half-sister before losing consciousness.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Posted at 6:59PM on Dec 10th 2007 by repost
I thought it was shortly after 2 am to about 4 am that Stern was gone the second time?
"a cocktail that would have turned lethal after about five hours..."
GMTA!
That's a big blow for Munroe.
Does Daniel's drug list match up with Anna's drug list?...Which would mean Howard had access to all of them.
I'm guessing that Daniel knew enough about drugs that he was cautious. He wasn't an air-head like his mother (Sorry, don't mean to be offenseive) but some things have to be said.
It might be interesting to find out that Danny mentioned his mom's drug use to the PI.
I read where someone was wondering about Art and Judge Seidelin.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=8febl03&s=1
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. This is one of them.
And I can't figure why he would have had Ambien in his system. He was, after all, there to see his mother and meet his new sister. He wouldn't want to sleep.
I did find the name of the private investigator - Jack Harding. Is he to be a witness in this inquest?
Everything is very quiet in KE land. Something is likely up in the KE/Kapoor investigation but is being kept under wraps. Cases need to be built so they don't fail.
There's a couple people we don't know...this un-named doctor and Daniel's girlfriend.
I don’t remember him being listed and don’t know if putting your name on the list is a requirement before the inquest starts or whether you can walk in the door at any time.
Time: I kind of thought arrival was around 11 p.m. and Howard picked him up. Then, Howard went for food. He may have left a second time??
My memory is not what it used to be. :)
Thanks for posting this. Ugh, once again some large mistakes that we don’t know how to rectify.
Why doesn’t the writer list the names of all the drugs? We had already heard that Benadryl and Sudafed were two more, in addition to the Ambien, and the known methadone, Zoloft and Lexapro. The rescue drugs must have been Narcan and Atropine. That’s 8 right there - where is the “embarrassing” one? And what is the “3rd” antidepressant - which would make a total of 9 drugs?
And how did those abrasions get turned into bruises again? Did the pathologist *really* say bruises or contusions or ecchymoses or something like that? Or did he say abrasions and the writer called them bruises instead of scrapes? And why have they moved from his pelvic area on the front to now being on his back? And why are they *now* being attributed to the revival attempts, when they’ve said all along that they were *not* caused by them? Arrggh.
Where was the quote from Munroe uttered? In the courtroom, during the inquest? Why would he be making any testimony? If he came out and spoke to the newspaper, why? Why is that quote even in there?
I don’t like this!
Oh, I didn’t see your post before the news article. Hmmm. Thanks. Hmmm. So, Munroe *was* arguing before the court - I didn’t realize that.
Sounds like he made a doofus of himself. Good!
But how did the nurses see Daniel up and around at 6:30AM, if it would’ve taken him 4-6 hours to die, after ingestion, and he was found dead around 9:30AM?
One thing to consider is that Daniel was on PST. Let’s say he didn’t feel sleepy, but Anna was tired. What if he was too keyed up to fall asleep after his long trip, seeing his mother for the first time in a long time and meeting his sister. What if Howard said something like, I have some ambien at home. I’ll go get it.
But the real question is: how does a person ingest 7 Lexapro, 7 Zoloft and 7 Methadone without knowing it?
There is one obvious possibility: Daniel committed suicide.
But if he committed suicide, why would he take an ambien for sleep? Had he taken it on the plane and it has a long half life?
If Daniel did not commit suicide, how would that massive number of pills get into his body?
I hope so! I can’t stand not hearing the testimony firsthand or at least reading a court transcript!
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