At a press conference this morning, authorities said that Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental overdose of a sleeping medication and at least eight other prescription drugs, and she had recently had a bacterial infection from injecting drugs into her buttocks.
Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper said Smith died of “combined drug intoxication” with the sleeping medication chloral hydrate as the major factor.
She had been taking a lengthy list of medications, including methadone for pain and valium, but those drugs were at therapeutic levels, he said. A bacterial infection from injecting medication in her buttocks and the flu contributed to her death, according to the report.
Chloral hydrate is a sedative used to treat insomnia and alcohol withdrawal, relieve anxiety and ease post-surgery pain.
The drug is rarely prescribed and is known to be fatal if combined with certain other drugs — including the sedative Lorazepam, which the autopsy showed she was taking, said Dr. Chip Walls, a forensic toxicologist for the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami.
Perper said Smith also had been on several antidepressant and antianxiety drugs and had recently taken longevity medications, vitamin B12 and growth hormone. An assistant medical examiner’s report described seeing a table in Smith’s hotel room containing cold medicine, soda cans, SlimFast, nicotine gum and an open box of Tamiflu tablets.
“We found nothing to indicate any foul play,” said Chief Charlie Tiger of the Seminole police department.
Smith, 39, was found unresponsive Feb. 8 in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood on one of the tribe’s reservations.
According to the medical examiner’s report, a private nurse had asked a guard to call 911 around 1 p.m. and had started CPR. The Seminole EMS were called about 1:40 p.m. and arrived six minutes later, according
“Miss Smith had a long history of prescription drug use and over-self medicating. She may have drank a little too much chloral hydrate to alleviate symptoms which were secondary to infection,” the medical examiner’s report said. The report, while ruling Smith’s death accidental, notes that her idol, Marilyn Monroe, died of chloral hydrate and barbiturates.
The report listed several reasons Smith’s death was believed to be accidental. It said that suicide victims typically take far more of a lethal drug than the chloral hydrate found in Smith’s body, and that Smith had “a long history of prescription drug use and over-self medicating.” It also cited her religious upbringing and the recent birth of her baby girl.
