20 year-old Daniel Smith didn’t die from suicide or murder, and the pathologist Anna Nicole hired suggests that it was a simple drug interaction:
“It is possible we might be dealing with one of those tragic and cumulative and drug-related deaths where somebody inadvertently takes two or three different kinds of drugs, each of which has a central nervous system effect,” he said Monday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
Years ago when I was sick with this autoimmune disorder I saw several different specialists and they all prescribed me something different. I would give them a list of what drugs I was on, and they usually glanced at it and wrote me another prescription. I ended up in the emergency room with severe slurred speech due to a drug interaction. The hospital couldn’t figure out what was wrong, though, and just sent me home. The next day, when the same thing happened at the exact same time, I googled the drugs I was on and figured out what happened myself. I called the doctor who prescribed the last medication, and he said “Oh, yeah, you’re not supposed to take those two together” even though he should have known exactly what I was taking.
What’s more, I filled my prescriptions at Walgreens under the same account, and they’re supposed to have a system that catches drug interactions. I simply took two drugs at the same time at low recommended dosages that had cumulative CNS effects. One of them was a low-dose antidepressant and the other was Neurontin. I’m not sure why the last doctor gave me Neurontin except for the fact that he had samples of it at the time. My speech was so screwed up that the hospital initially thought I had a stroke. After that I discontinued most everything, and am now a lot healthier.
The moral is that this kind of thing happens all the time, and sometimes it’s deadly. Drugs can be quite useful, but they usually don’t cure you and you have to watch out for yourself because it’s rare that doctors will. Daniel Smith was a healthy 20 year-old guy, and unfortunately his death may end up being a warning about the dangers of prescription drugs.
Update: Thanks to Celebrity Smack for running this story about Daniel’s medical problems. He lost 28 pounds recently, was experiencing severe stomach pains, and had to be placed under intensive care. If he did die from a deadly drug combination, his health problems would explain why he was on several medications.
This is so sad.. It’s always even more tragical when you know that it could have been prevented or shouldn’t have happened at all, you know? I truly feel sorry for Anna Nicole Smith and I guess there’ll be some kind of investigation against the doctor who told him to take these drugs, don’t you think?
I’m not an expert in these things (you obviously are, Celebitchy, and I’m truly sorry that you had to go through such procedures because of a similar mistake), but I’m sure that losing your son due to such a horrible mistake is even worse than losing him because of a desease. I read everywhere that he’s never been a completely healthy boy and that he was depressed because of a girlfriend or something – it’s horrible that the doctors couldn’t find another way to help him and especially that they didn’t notice earlier how bad he feels.
I’m not an expert either, you just figure things out if you get sick. I don’t want to sound like an old person talking about my aches and pains, but it’s hard to keep quiet when some kid might have died from a drug interaction. This type of thing is more common than people think.
Medicine is very inexact and often unhelpful for people who are chronically ill. If there is depression involved that complicates it because the psychological problem is blamed when he really could have Chron’s disease or celiac or something that was causing his stomach problems. I bet that if he did die from a drug interaction the doctor or whoever is responsible will be blamed but that not much will come of it.
Hey – maybe the lawyer gave him some of his own medication and that’s what Anna was screaming about.
^ Wow, that’s actually a quite logical thesis.. Could be true, yeah!
I’m still in shock over it ! I’ve read everything and anything I could get my hands on, just to find out why such a nice guy had to die so young…! My heart goes out to Anna ! I keep going back to where Anna kept screaming “You caused this, You caused this” to whoever was in the hospital room with her at the Daniel was discovered not breathing…Only to find out it was that wacko attorney of her’s, Howard K. Stern ! I have my suspicians right there with that egg head ! Hope she gets rid of the moron ! I wonder if pics will come out of the so-called-girlfriend of Daniel’s, that hurt him badly enough that a 20 year old would have to be put on antidepressants and sleeping pills…At 20 years old and living in California, I’m sure he could have found another sweetie the next day with his good looks ! I had also heard he was to start college ! God, the kid had the world before him and he didn’t get much of a taste ! My heart is so saddened for him and his mom !
I have a friend who lost her 20yo son in his sleep on a visit to Berne.His father found him in [their hotel room] in the morning. His heart stopped in his sleep. Sometimes people do die for no reason