Why We Shouldn’t Rush to Blame Heath Ledger’s Death on Doctors

Over on the Huffington Post, STATS’ Maia Szalavitz takes on some of the responses to the medical examiner’s report on actor Heath Ledger’s death, particularly the suggestion that one or more doctors may be “responsible” for his death rather than it being a consequence of drug abuse.

The problem, she argues, is that there is often a stigma to acknowledging that someone is addicted to drugs. But

The fact is, the vast majority of people who die from combinations of opioids and benzodiazepines — especially with several drugs from the same medical class in their bodies, especially if opioid painkillers are involved — are not taking their drugs as prescribed. They are addicts or, at least, drug misusers.

It’s conceivable that Ledger had a corrupt or profoundly incompetent doctor, but the more parsimonious explanation, given his history of recreational drug use, is that he was not following doctor’s orders at all.

This is important because blaming doctors for these deaths hurts pain patients and people with anxiety disorders who legitimately need these medications. Every time people avoid the hard truth about particular overdoses, legitimate patients get punished by restricted access to necessary medications and even denial of medication for excruciating pain or anxiety.

Also check out Maia’s earlier post “How not to die like Heath Ledger, Part II“