Thursday, 2 June 2016

Opioid Overdose Was The Cause Of Prince's Death They Said






Prince died of a self-administered Fentanyl overdose according to an autopsy report released on Thursday by the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office. 
The 57-year-old singer's death was ruled an accident, and the only listed cause on the medical examiner's report was 'Fentanyl toxicity'.
The autopsy report also revealed that the 5ft 3in singer weighed just 112lbs at the time of his death, and that he was dressed entirely in black (cap, pants, shirt, socks and boxer briefs) when his unresponsive body was discovered on April 21 inside an elevator at his Paisley Park estate just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Prince's former drug dealer believed opioids were behind the singer's death when he spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com in April.
He also revealed that the performer would spend up to $40,000 on six-month supplies of two drugs - Dilaudid pills and Fentanyl patches.

Prince's dealer - who asked to be identified as Doctor D - said that he sold drugs to Prince from 1984 to 2008 and described the singer as 'majorly addicted'.


WHAT IS FENTANYL?
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic similar to but more potent than morphine. 
It is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, or to manage pain after surgery. 
It is also sometimes used to treat people with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to opiates.
Like heroin, morphine, and other opioid drugs, fentanyl works by binding to the body's opiate receptors, highly concentrated in areas of the brain that control pain and emotions. 
When opiate drugs bind to these receptors, they can drive up dopamine levels in the brain's reward areas, producing a state of euphoria and relaxation. 
When prescribed by a physician, fentanyl is often administered via injection, transdermal patch, or in lozenge form. 
The type of fentanyl associated with recent overdoses was produced in clandestine laboratories and mixed with (or substituted for) heroin in a powder form.
Side effects of the drug include euphoria, drowsiness/respiratory depression and arrest, nausea, confusion, constipation, sedation, unconsciousness, coma, tolerance, and addiction.  





He sold him the drugs he explained because Prince was too afraid of doctors to obtain a prescription, but also had stage fright and needed them to get out and perform on stage.  
'I first met Prince in 1984 while he was filming the movie Purple Rain and he was already majorly addicted to opiates - I didn't hook him on drugs he was already a really heavy user,' said Doctor D.
'In the beginning he would buy speed as well as Dilaudid. I would sell him black beauties which were a black pill and cross tops which were also speed pills.
'He would use that as a counter balance to get back up again from taking opiates.That lasted for a couple of years then he would just buy Dilaudid, which is a heroin based opiate. It is highly addictive.
'As far as I knew he never took heroin - as that would leave you out of it for days whereas Dilaudid gives you an energy buzz as well as making you feel relaxed - so he preferred it.'
He went on to say about Prince: 'He needed the drugs because he was so nervous - he could be nervous in a room with just five people in it.
'He was scared to go out in public, he was scared to talk to people and didn't like to go on stage - he had the worst case of stage fright I'd ever seen.
'A lot of performers rely on drugs to make them feel confident on stage but he was by far the worse.
'Plus he was always paranoid about doctors so he wouldn't ask them for help - he had a phobia of them.
'I was surprised when I heard he had been picking up prescriptions before he died.' 



Doctor D also seemed to think that if Prince had been prescribed Percocet by a doctor that could have caused his death, suggesting that even Diludid would have been a safer choice for the singer.
It was reported shortly after Prince's death that the highly addictive painkiller Percocet - which contains both acetaminophen and oxycodone - had been found in his system.
There were also reports around that time claiming Prince had been treated for an overdose of Percocet just six days before his death. 
'If Prince was just taking Dilaudid he would still be alive,' he said.
'It has less side effects than other opiate drugs such as Percocet but doctors don't like to prescribe it because it's one of the heaviest drugs.
'The problem with Percocet is that it is an opiate mixed with Tylenol - but he would have been taking much more than the recommended dose because he had developed a tolerance to opiates over the years.

'When you take that much Tylenol it can cause major problems - especially with your kidneys.





'But doctors would have freaked out if they knew the extent of Prince's drug problem and wouldn't know what to do.'
He added about the singer: 'He self medicated for years and was fine - so it wouldn't have been the opiates that killed him but the Tylenol.
'So perversely the doctors who thought they were helping him may have hurt him by prescribing Percocet.
'Also if they did have to give him a save shot when he overdosed like everybody is saying - that removes all traces of drugs from your system so he would have started to go into withdrawal and would have had to take a lot of drugs to feel okay again - which also could have killed him.
'You can't just stop taking these drugs when you have taken them for so long.
'But without knowing his drug history doctors wouldn't have known that.
'It explains why he was spotted looking nervous and pacing around at the pharmacy in the week before his death.' 


The investigation into Prince's death has been focused on his use of painkillers and how he obtained those painkillers, according to sources who spoke with the Minneapolis Star Tribune.   



Meanwhile, federal authorities joined the investigation into the singer's death last month in a move by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the DEA to allow investigators to probe Prince's final days spent outside of Minnesota, when the singer's private plane made an emergency landing in Illinois. 
Officials said that the main reason the federal authorities had been brought in was so the investigation could cover the multiple states Prince had visited in the weeks before his death. 
Prince's private jet made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, six days before he died so he could be rushed to hospital.
The singer, who was flying from a show in Atlanta, was treated for flu and did not stay the night at the hospital.
He appeared at a dance party in Minnesota just days before his death to let his fans know he was recovering, telling them: 'Wait a few days before you waste any prayers.' 
Prince was last pictured the night before his death leaving a Walgreen's near his home around 7pm, marking the fourth time the singer had been to the pharmacy that week.
An hour later, he headed back inside his vast estate and 13 hours later he was found by friend Kirk Johnson and personal assistant Meron Bekure lying unresponsive in an elevator.
Paramedics performed CPR upon arriving on the scene five minutes after receiving a 911 call but were not successful in reviving the singer. 
Officials later stated that the singer was likely dead for approximately six hours before his body was found. 
An autopsy was performed the following day. 
The day before Prince died, his representatives reached out to California doctor Dr Howard Kornfeld to arrange a meeting according to a lawyer for the doctor.
Attorney William Mauzy said Dr Kornfeld had never met or spoken to Prince before Prince's representatives contacted him on April 20.
Mauzy said Dr Kornfeld was not able to travel immediately to Minnesota, so he arranged for his son Andrew to go instead.
Andrew Kornfeld took a late flight on April 20 so he could be at Prince's Paisley Park studio complex the next morning. When he got there, he was with Johnson and Burke when they found Prince in the elevator, and it was he who called 911.

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