SWALLOW Flashback Featured Post: What Really Killed Anna Nicole Smith?

"New York" Magazine (August 22, 1994)

What Really Killed Anna Nicole Smith?
by Maxim W. Furek, MA, CAC, ICADC
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On February 8, 2007, the front desk staff at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL, made a desperate 911 call: “We need assistance to room 607 at the Hard Rock. It’s in reference to a white female. She’s not breathing and not responsive…actually, it’s Anna Nicole Smith.” Anna Nicole Smith was found lifeless in room 607 after bodyguard Maurice “Big Moe” Brighthaupt called the hotel front desk from Smith’s sixth floor room. Brighthaupt, a trained paramedic, administered CPR before Smith was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital at 2:10 p.m. The TV reality star and former Playboy Playmate of the Year was pronounced DOA at 2:49 p.m. (CNN.com, 2007).

After a seven-week investigation, the official death report and autopsy were publicly released. The March 26, 2007, report acknowledged that Smith’s death was not due to homicide, suicide, or natural causes, but was caused by an accidental drug overdose.  During his press conference, Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County Medical Examiner and Forensic Pathologist, stated that Smith died of “combined drug intoxication,” with the sleeping medication chloral hydrate being the “major component” in her death. No illegal drugs were identified but there were a total of seven prescription drugs, usually prescribed for anxiety, depression and insomnia, found in her bloodstream.  Smith, it was also revealed, had injected herself with shots of Vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin) and human growth hormone, as an anti-aging strategy. That brought the total number of substances in her bloodstream to nine.