Dr.Drew Pinksy, heard weekdays at Noon on 790 KABC radio, spoke at length on his program Friday about the death of music legend Prince. Dr. Drew explained and gave context to events around the untimely death. The Hollywood Reporter also ran a story with some of Dr. Drew’s observations:
While there are many more questions than answers at this point, Pinsky says one thing is clear: “They don’t land planes for the flu.” The HLN personality goes on to explain that Prince’s respiratory distress, possibly the result of “the combination of oral opiates and Benzodiazepines, is extraordinarily dangerous” but that physicians prescribe or otherwise endorse the combo “all the time.” It “stops you from breathing and you die,” says Pinsky. “It’s easy for that to happen with that combination even as prescribed.”
The fact that Prince left the hospital in a hurry is also significant, adds Pinsky. “It means he left against medical advice. Now, we’re hearing that, too.”
On April 22, Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson announced to reporters that Prince’s death was officially ruled not a suicide.
Could Prince have been addicted to pain pills, as are millions of Americans in what has become an epidemic in the U.S.? Pinsky’s take is that “although opiates figure into this story, it doesn’t really sound like an addiction story. Even if it ends up being drugs that caused him to stop breathing, I would put it more in the accident category than the addiction category. But still, an otherwise healthy middle-aged man with hip pain should not be on opiates chronically. Period.”
Pinsky also notes that there could have been an “underlying chronic health issue” that we’re not aware of, be it cancer or heart disease or sarcoidosis. “We will have our answer in due time.”
Hear Dr. Drew and Mike Catherwood, weekdays Noon to 3 on 790 KABC Radio
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