Hugely beloved and legendary actor Carrie Fisher‘s cause of death has been revealed by the LA County Coroner‘s office.
Fisher passed away on December 27th last year at the age of 60, after suffering a medical emergency on a LA-bound flight from London three days prior.
Her official death certificate, revealed this past January, states her cause of death as “cardiac arrest,” but a report – released today by the coroner – reveals a number of factors contributed to her medical emergency.
The coroner states that Fisher was suffering from sleep aponea, a common condition that causes people to cease breathing while sleeping, for periods of time that can range from a few seconds up to a few minutes.
The report also stated that Fisher had taken multiple drugs, but family members assert that that was no secret, and was a result of her on-going treatment for her well-documented mental health issues.
Fisher’s brother Todd Fisher asserted that he was not surprised by the results, and mused that Carrie’s heart condition may well have been exacerbated by her smoking habit, as well as the medications she was on. But he said that his sister’s mental health professionals were simply doing their job, and her medications played a vital role in managing her bi-polar disorder, which she was diagnosed with at the age of 24.
“We’re not enlightened. There’s nothing about this that is enlightening. I would tell you, from my perspective that there’s certainly no news that Carrie did drugs. I am not shocked that part of her health was affected by drugs.”
“If you want to know what killed her, it’s all of it. They were doing their best to cure a mental disorder. Can you really blame them?”“Without her drugs, maybe she would have left long ago.”
Fisher’s death last year sparked an outpouring of grief and emotion around the globe from fans and friends alike, all of whom remembered her as a fierce and passionate woman, savagely funny and incredibly intelligent; a person who was totally unafraid of being vulnerable in the public sphere.
And while the coroner’s report may insist that it was a myriad of causes that contributed to her death, her self-suggested line of “drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra” has always seemed way more fitting.
Source: ABC News.
Photo: David M. Benett/Getty.
