Matthew Perry was addicted. His entire memoir revolved around his addictions to drugs and alcohol. At the end of his life a few weeks ago he was clean – he said. The coroner and autopsy report say otherwise.
Just a year ago, Matthew Perry published his memoirs. With a good dose of self-criticism and being very reflective, he publicly cleaned up his life. He took his readers on a lifelong journey through the drug and alcohol quagmire, to the hospital bed and through several rehab stays. He recently claimed that he had been clean for 19 months. At least on the day of his death, this statement is not true.
On the morning of his death, his good friend Jennifer Aniston was still in touch with him via text message, she said in an interview with the magazine “Variety” when asked how she would like Perry to be remembered by fans: “As he said it himself, that is how he would like to be remembered. He was happy. He was healthy. He had stopped smoking. He was in shape. He was happy – that’s all I know. I texted him that morning, funny Matty. He wasn’t in any pain. He had no problems. He was happy.”
Matthew Perry had ketamine levels similar to general anesthesia
He may have been happy, but he wasn’t sober when he died in his hot tub on Oct. 28. His autopsy report, obtained by the British magazine, states that Perry had ingested a high dose of the anesthetic ketamine. The values were 3,540 ng/ml in peripheral blood and 3,271 ng/ml in central blood. A dose that could have caused a complete general anesthesia, the necessary amounts of ketamine are between 1,000 – 6,000 ng/ml, according to the coroner.
Experts suspect that Perry first became unconscious from the ketamine and then drowned. The effects of the narcotic are listed first on the long autopsy report, followed by other causes that were also summarized by the forensic medicine: “To Mr. Perry’s Death Contributing factors include drowning, coronary heart disease and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder).” The buphrenorphine levels were not in the toxic range, but the doctor does not rule out an interaction with ketamine, which could have had an impact on breathing.
However, sometimes ketamine is prescribed at a much lower dosage in severe cases of depression. Same with Matthew Perry. However, his last dose at the doctor was already a week and a half ago and therefore cannot be related to the levels in his blood at the time of death.
“Given the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood samples, the fatal effects are due to both overstimulation of the cardiovascular system and respiratory depression”Los Angeles coroner Raffi Djabourian concluded.
But despite an autopsy, Matthew Perry’s death still poses another mystery. His memoirs will be published in 2022 “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” he wrote “Friends”-Actor already on ketamine. He reported on a ketamine treatment during a rehabilitation stay in Switzerland: “Ketamine is not for me”. He spoke of changes in breathing, such as forceful exhalations, and that he sometimes felt like he was dying during this treatment. However, he apparently got used to the anesthetic and perhaps even became addicted.
The death is classified as an accident because it cannot be conclusively clarified how Perry was aware of such a large amount Ketamine took, which probably rendered him unconscious. Perry was found in his hot tub, lifeless and with his head underwater, by his assistant on October 28th.
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Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
