Medical Examiner Fails To Find Cause Of Anna Nicole Smith’s Death
Posted February 9, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The reasons Anna Nicole Smith died may remain a mystery for some time yet.
A six hour-long autopsy performed in Florida Friday afternoon failed to show any specific cause of death.
In fact, the Broward County medical examiner knows more about what didn’t kill the actress-model on Thursday afternoon than what did.
And indications are it definitely wasn’t a case of foul play. The results show Smith hadn’t been dead long, with doctors noting that her body was still warm when help arrived.
“The autopsy was able to exclude any kind of physical injuries such as blunt force trauma, gunshot wound, [or] stab wounds … as a contributory cause of death,” explains Dr. Joshua Perper.
There’s also no evidence that she choked on anything.
And there weren’t any illegal drugs in her system, although she was on some prescription medication.
But while Perper refused to identify the medicine in question, he was adamant Smith didn’t have an overdose of it in her system that might have led to her sudden demise.
Investigators contend that Smith reported she wasn’t feeling well when she checked into her Hollywood, Florida hotel earlier this week and that the medicine they found was actually prescribed to her companion, Howard K. Stern.
“We didn’t find any kind of pills in the stomach. If this would be the case, there would have been a large amount. We would have seen that,” he notes. Perper says his team found no signs of “continuous drug use.” Still, he admits the conclusions are preliminary and he’s awaiting further toxicology tests.
There was some blood found in the stomach, which could have had a number of causes and Perper’s staff is also looking into that. And there’s at least one anomaly in the heart that needs further study.
But we may not know what he finds for a while.
“It’s our estimate that collecting the information and putting it together and relating the clinical pathological and laboratory data would take approximately somewhere between three and five weeks,” he concludes.
Perper adds there are only three possibilities that may yet present themselves.
“One is that the death is due solely to natural causes. The other possibility is that the death might be due to some medication or chemicals. The third possibility is that there’s a combination of natural causes and medication and at this time we do not have the results of the tests which will permit us to make this determination.”
Smith was discovered without vital signs in her room Thursday afternoon. Efforts to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead in hospital. She was only 39 years old.
Major legal battles loom after Smith’s death
To see unedited video of Perper, click here.
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