Dr. Manny: Finally, Justice for Anna Nicole?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I can’t believe it took more than two years to charge the physicians involved in the case of Anna Nicole Smith’s death. It really shocks me that it took so long for these investigators to connect the dots.
Even from the preliminary data, it is evident that prescription medication had clearly played an important role in the cause of her death.
In fact, according to an Associated Press report, investigators found 11 prescription medications in her hotel room the day she died. More than 600 pills — including about 450 muscle relaxers — were missing from prescriptions that were no more than five weeks old when she died, and most of the drugs were prescribed in the name of Howard K. Stern, her lawyer-turned-companion. And actually, none of them were prescribed in Smith’s name.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}So it makes me wonder, how is it possible that it took almost two years for charges to be brought on these doctors?
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If you look at the confidential fax that was sent in September of 2006 to Dr. Sandeep Kapoor from Smith's psychiatrist Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, the list of medications is a “who’s who” of narcotics, sedatives and sleeping medications and there is no scientific or chemical way that all of these drugs can be tolerated by the human body. These drugs are highly addictive and mixing them is basically the equivalent of a loaded gun in the hands of a child.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}There’s a whole list of drugs she was on including: Four bottles of 2 mg Dilaudid; 2 milliliter bottles of Lorazepam (Ativan); two bottles of 350 mg Soma, a total of 180 tablets; one bottle each of 30 mg Dalmane and 400 mg Prexige, the latter a British drug; and one bottle of methadone, 300 5mg tablets. All of them are classified as different types of painkillers.
There are also statements from Dr. Eroshevich, where she pleads with Dr. Kapoor to give Smith something to knock her out, that's according to FOXNews.com's Roger Friedman who first reported this Friday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}If Dr. Eroshevich felt Anna Nicole needed to be sedated, the proper procedure would have been to put her in a hospital setting where she could be monitored and cared for in a healing environment
At the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that all doctors take an oath to “do no harm.” So how, in keeping with that sacred oath, could any doctor prescribe these medications knowing that the outcome could be deadly?
Dr. Manny Alvarez is the managing editor of health news at FOXNews.com, and is a regular medical contributor on the FOX News Channel. He is chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.