Former Heath Ledger flame Helena Christensen looked like she’d been through the mill yesterday after picking up her 8-year-old son, Mingus Reedus, from school.
The Danish supermodel — who dated Heath last fall and was on her way over to his apartment on Tuesday night when she found out he was dead — had said she was “just beyond sad” upon the news of the Australian actor’s death.
Doc: Overdose No Accident
The idea that Heath Ledger might have accidentally overdosed on the prescription pills in his apartment is “unlikely,” according to one America’s foremost forensics doctor who spoke yesterday with the New York Post.
“We don’t see many deaths from the common sleeping pills,” said Dr. Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police, and the former chief medical examiner of New York City. “The pills generally have a large safety margin. You just don’t take one extra pill and die.”
There were six different kinds of prescription pills —primarily generic versions of the anti-anxiety medications Xanax and Valium— issued in the Australian actor’s name at his apartment, with two types of sleep aids (Donormyl and Zopiclone) found beside his body. The Associated Press reported that three of the drugs were prescribed to Heath in Europe.
The cause of death is still unclear, and an autopsy conducted yesterday was inconclusive. Authorities expect it to be another 10 days to two weeks before they get any definitive answers.
Dr. Baden went on to say that fatal overdoses of such medications can occur, but generally only if someone takes more than a dozen at one time — much more than the recommended dosage and far more than a person could take accidentally, even if he had lost track of how many pills he had taken.
Additionally, Baden speculated that if Ledger was prescribed a wide variety of pills for sleep, it might indicate that he had a substance problem, since prescription pills are “probably abused more than illegal drugs.”
