[fso301]

A VERY unusual way for a guy to kill himself...but, it is effective.

Unusual yes. I'm not so sure of it's effectiveness.

I understand acute aspirin overdose to have a mortality rate of 2%. Chronic overdose is more commonly lethal with a mortality rate of 25%;

[lentulusgracchus]

I understand acute aspirin overdose to have a mortality rate of 2%.

Which being said, is it more or less likely, then, that his "suicide" was involuntary?

[Pharmboy]

Oh, it's pretty effective. While chronic salicylate toxicity (esp. in the elderly) is an important issue, acute poisoning is still a problem. From an emergency department textbook (emphasis added):

The incidence of pediatric salicylate poisoning has declined steadily since 1965 as a result of safety packaging, legislation limiting the number of tablets in bottles of children's aspirin, and decreased use because of the association between aspirin use and Reye's syndrome. Similarly, the increased use of nonsalicylate nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has resulted in a reciprocal decrease in the incidence of adult salicylate poisoning. Despite these trends, however, salicylate continues to be a major cause of poisoning morbidity and mortality, with thousands of exposures and dozens of deaths reported in the United States each year. Additionally, salicylate poisoning is misdiagnosed and mistreated with alarming frequency (1,19).