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TMZ has the official cause of death for actress Brittany Murphy, who passed away unexpectedly at the age of 32 on December 20th. It’s hard to tell in the initial report what the root cause of Brittany’s death was, but they say she had pneumonia, iron deficiency anemia and “multiple drug intoxication.” In a follow-up report, TMZ has clarification from a source at the coroner’s office. It was the pneumonia and anemia that led to Murphy’s death and the medication, a legitimate prescription and some cough syrup, that “pushed her over the line”:
Sources involved in Brittany Murphy’s autopsy tell TMZ her death was “preventable.”
Sources say the primary causes of Murphy’s death were pneumonia and severe anemia. L.A. County Coroner officials believe Brittany’s condition was “treatable” but no one took her to the hospital in time.
As for the multiple drugs found in her system, we’re told they were both prescription, including medicine for cramps, and over-the-counter medications, including cough syrup. Our sources say the drugs “pushed her over the line” but the underlying problems were the pneumonia and anemia.
In other words, Brittany was really sick, didn’t get treatment and by self-medicating it pushed her over the line.
[From TMZ]
These findings are consistent with what we’ve heard from Brittany’s mother and widower, who both insisted in interviews that she was on only drugs for her menstrual cramps and that she wasn’t taking multiple prescriptions. They also said that she had what seemed like a slight flu before she died. Coupled with her weakened system, it was enough to cause Brittany’s death. I hope her family can find a small amount of peace in this news.
Written by Celebitchy
Posted in Brittany Murphy, Deaths
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46 Responses to “Brittany Murphy’s death caused by pneumonia, anemia, drug intoxication”
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May she rest in peace. Poor Brittany – such a sad story.
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Sad. Let”s hope it’s a lesson to all of us to be careful of our health.
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this is truly heartbreaking but hopefully it brings peace to he family. and as much as i don’t like Simon, i hope people will lay off the “he killed her’ theories. and he will stop attempting to sue everyone who didn’t hire her.
this is one tragedy we should all put to bed. she was a very private person and let’s let her rest as one too.
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that’s sad
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Very sad, especially since it was treatable.
If nothing else, this should put to rest the speculation of illegal drugs, which many people, myself included, thought it could be.
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why didn’t her mother or husband get her medical treatment if she was so sick?
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Thanks. That’s why sometimes we have to wait and see rather than guess. Pneumonia and anemia. And Casey was diabetes. It wasn’t illegal or prescription drugs as the root cause in either case.
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Lucy2- don’t be too hard on yourself for thinking that, we all did. I suspect that like me, you thought it was illegal drugs but hoped it wasn’t true.
Poor kid.
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Strange.
Strange, because as a couple of people hinted/stated, it was almost 100% preventable, and that’s tragic.
NOW he and her mom should have came on Larry King, but because of that silly lawsuit and “questionable” fund-raiser, people are still going to be suspicious of him and his “different way of grieving.”
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I don’t know if it would bring them peace knowing a trip to the hospital could’ve prevented her death. Sad news all around. Maybe the finality of it (knowing) can bring them some comfort.
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I bet most of us have had a cold or flu that we just waited out. That’s apparently what she was doing, with fatal results. Very sad.
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What would cause iron deficiency anemia? Is that eating disorder related or something completely different? *runs off to google*
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meme, from what I understood from what they (her mother and her husband) said right after she died, she was only sick a short time before she died.
I admit when I had the flu late last year, I hurt so bad and had such awful symptoms that I took my prescription pain reliever, Theraflu and Tylenol all at once. It didn’t do anything but put me to sleep for a few hours, but I know it was a dangerous thing to do.
Dingles, anemia can be caused by a whole host of things, including menstruating, a lack of iron in your diet and probably binging/purging and anorexia.
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Didn’t he say she also suffered from a congenital heart murmur and was not being treated for that, either?
I have one, and I have not been prescribed anything, but it seems like she had A LOT going on prior…
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That’s tragic.
Such a waste of life that could have been so easy to save to begin with
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If pneumonia were the primary cause, she would have been comatose, and would not have had the strength to walk to the bathroom to shower.
Something fishy about this convenient conclusion, but that’s hollywood!
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this is so sad!
CAP (community aquired pneumonia- also called mycoplasma pneumonia) is nothing to fool around with- i just came off of having this very thing for 3 weeks. it starts out as a head cold with a slight cough and then after about a week or so very rapidly turns into what looks like bronchitis. most doctors treat bronchitis as a virus, and therefore do not prescribe antibiotics. i never had a fever- except low grade in the very beginning, and for a short time. my point: this can masquerade as something more benign until it is really late in the game. i was lucky- i broke out in very specific type of rash that led my doctor to change the original diagnosis from bronchitis to CAP, and a simple z pack helped immensely.
CAP is present in most communities, and most people don’t get very sick. it is not something to really worry about, because it can usually be treated.
i really feel for this family- what a devastating loss.
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that’s so scary that you can be sick enough to die but not feel like you should go to the hospital
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I’ve been border-line anemic many times (not sure about now) and have also had pneumonia several times. One time I had pneumonia & went to my Dr. who gave me a perscription and I was waiting it out. Several days later, my brother insisted on taking me to the hospital where they told me I could have died if I had not been admitted. So sometimes even doing everything you think is right doesn’t work. I believe Medical Clinics do not want to send people to hospitals because of the cost.
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Lies again. She was tweaking meth and that caused all of the problems. She died from meth complications.
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1. The full details of the toxicology report will be published in a couple of weeks. This is just the “cause of death.” She didn’t die from a drug overdose, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a number of drugs, prescription or otherwise, in her system.
2. anemia basically is an iron deficiency that affects the red blood cells. If someone had an eating disorder (or was very very thin), they easily could be anemic. You can be anemic and not have those issues, but if you don’t eat, you don’t get enough iron.
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So very sad,
She died at a young age, which is so very sad and tragic, & it must be heartbreaking to hear that something could have been done if only her symptons were treated, such a sad waste of life
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It is a pain to read all the warning labels and prescription drug side effects, but we all should make sure to do it. You never know. I once made myself sick by taking a prescription drug in the wrong manner, because I was busy and didn’t take time to fully read all of the instructions.
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@ cheekymonkey- pneumonia doesn’t put you in a coma, well it could if you went into respiratory failure but most patients I’ve cared for (i’m an RN) were wide awake when admitted to the hospital.
@ sigh- heart murmurs, if they are minor ones,are usually just monitored by MD’s. If it was to worsen then some intervention might be needed.
As for the anemia,a low enough hct, coupled with the pneumonia and if she was taking hydrocodone and possibly a cough syrup with codiene which will depress the cardiac/respitory areas of the brain, could have put her into respiratory and cardic failure. And sadly that is just what has appeared to have happened.
I agree with the poster who said it might not be much comfort to know a trip to the hospital could have saved her.
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Sad and pointless death. But then, so also were all the recent deaths in Haiti. She was unique, and I always enjoyed her work. Sorry to see her gone, especially now knowing she could have been saved, given prompt medical attention.
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Now maybe someone can take her husband to court for wrongful death. Why didn’t he take her to the hospital to treat her anemia and pneumonia? Damned gold digger than he is.
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Now wheres that perez Hilton who said she died because of illegal drugs whatsoever? Wheres That perez??!
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If Brittany had a heart murmur and used a cough syrup with pseudoephedrine, I suspect this was the cause of death. It is interesting that the name of the cough syrup is not mentioned.
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Great husband she had there. Not feeling well honey? Hold on, my cheeseburger is ready.
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Scary. It can happen far more easily than people think. A couple of years ago I had a bad flu, and mono that hadn’t been diagnosed yet, and was taking tylenol 2 that had just been prescribed (worse possible thing for an inflamed liver) and had also taken gravol. I’ll never forget the fever shakes and frightening stupor in the middle of the night – but did I wake up my husband? No, I was desperately ill and incoherent, but somehow thought I shouldn’t disturb his sleep! I too ended up being diagnosed with pneumonia to add to the drama, and was admitted to the hospital. I could have easily died, and I too was young and previously healthy. It happens, and it doesn’t mean someone was a drug abuser. She was just unlucky. So sad. The lesson here is to not always wait it out. And not to think that maybe a shower will make you feel better…
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It still feels completely unreal to me that she is dead.
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She really wasn’t taking care of herself if she was so anemic it contributed to her death. Good Lord, how sad.
Take note all who were just singing the praises of Meatless Mondays: Heme iron – it’s found only in meat! Humans are omnivores – scientifically we have the digestive tract of an omnivore, meaning we have difficulty deriving enough iron from any source other than some meat every now and again. And it’s especially crucial to women during their child bearing years (to put it delicately – but you know what I mean).
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As far as being anemic b/c you’re too thin-well, I’m about 40 lbs overweight & have been anemic or borderline anemic my whole life…I have an iron intolerance & actually get violently ill from iron supplements or multivitamins w/too much iron, and foods that are too rich in iron. Made for an interesting time after a surgery in which I had massive hemorrhaging. I also happen to take several of the medications that were found in Brittany’s house as migraine preventatives…you do have to be very careful what you take with them. However, when I had severe pneumonia/pleurisy/H1N1 in Nov, I was so confused, I know I was taking more OTC meds than I was supposed to be b/c I just wanted to feel better NOW! And my doctor actually suggested warm, steamy showers…so that may well be why Brittany was in the shower.
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There are umpteen different kinds of anemia and not all of them are iron deficiency. Basically you have to have no iron in your diet or be bleeding somewhere to become that iron deficient. You also have to be very anemic to die from it unless you truly have underlying cardiac disorders, MAYBE a pretty severe pneumonia could push you over the edge. Most people start at a baseline hemoglobin of 14 and if you’re healthy you have to get down below 8 or 7 hgb to really get symptomatic. There are a lot of missing details here. If Smoking Gun posts her autopsy report that would be another story.
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This is definitely very sad. How devastating would it be to a family to find out that taking their loved one to the hospital would’ve saved them? When grieving, you already deal with enough ‘What If’ moments.
I had pneumonia about 2 years ago and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I was really scared to go to sleep, because I was afraid that I would stop breathing and never wake up again. My family thought I had just a regular cold, but I kept insisting that something was wrong. A quick x-ray at the hospital revealed that I had fluid building up in my lungs. I was lucky to catch it early.
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crash2GO2,
Sorry, but most anemics are meat-eaters.
Was Brittany Murphy vegetarian?
What are Meatless Mondays?
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@sneezy: “Sorry, but most anemics are meat-eaters.”
I’d like to see a reference for that please.
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Let this serve at least as a lesson for someone.
Just because you can buy it in a drug store does not mean it’s safe to mix with other drugs.
My friend does this all the time. Mixes medications. And she’s been the hospital once for it. She just doesn’t understand that cough syrup is, in fact, a real drug. It can really mess you up if you take it with the wrong thing. These aren’t kiddie toys with rounded edges. They are chemicals that can interact with whatever is in your body and kill you.
Especially if your system is already compromised.
So sad. Please people: don’t mix your meds. If you have to take more than one at once, check and double check the safety. It takes less than you think to send you over the edge.
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Oh God, can we not let this degenerate into meat-eaters lecturing veggies? A poor diet is a poor diet even if it is rich in red meat because iron needs Vitamin C for absorption.
I don’t have the scientific study sneezy is referring to, but I was very very anaemic in my teens, despite being ostensibly a meat eater but very heavy periods (which is what it sounds like poor Brittany had if she had medication specifically prescribed for cramping – mefanamic acid or similar) which lead to my anaemia. However I’m not surprised that she had a serious infection with it because one of the major impacts of anaemia (other than exhaustion, headaches etc) is a weaker immune system. It took mine well over 5 years to recover.
I was in a not dissimilar situation myself recently, although it was a chest infection rather than full-blown pneumonia, and I don’t find it that suspicious that her husband didn’t bring her to the hospital to be honest.
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freckles-
Yeah, something similar happened to me when I was 17. I had the flu right before Xmas and could not get a dr. appt til the 26th, so my dad gave me a lot of OTC meds. I developed a sinus infection and when I went to the dr I got antibiotics, so I was taking them with all the OTC stuff my dad was giving me. So I ended up with jaundice and my liver was failing. Luckily I didn’t have to go to the hospital! I stopped taking all the meds and got better, but I have never felt “right” since then, and that was 11 years ago! Now I am EXTREMELY wary about medicine, OTC or prescription, and I try to take care of myself and prevent illness. When I get sick (which I rarely do) I just smoke a lot of weed, sleep constantly and drink tons of water, and I’m fine in a day or so. I’m not saying don’t take meds, just be careful. I never thought that they could mess you up, but they can, which is why I try to keep it all natural. Besides, they work better when you really need them if you aren’t taking them for every little sniffle or ache…
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Chicken T, glad you posted that. I had a terrible allergic reaction to a prescription medication 9 years ago and haven’t felt right since – it took a long time and a lot of me thinking I was crazy before I realized that the event had triggered everything.
What a sad story. And what a wake up call to anyone who casually mixes OTC and Rx drugs.
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@Mairead: Sorry to make you cranky. But absorption of iron is mainly dependent on the presence of folate and vitamin B12 – both of which are also found in red meat, along with heme-iron. It only takes a 4 ounce serving of red meat 2 to 3 times a week to meet most womens’ needs.
Yes, heavy menstrual bleeding is a PIA and can lead to iron deficiency anemia. I’ve suffered it myself. Sorry to hear you had such a problem. My mother suffered a similar episode – once it’s gone far enough, and depending on the cause of it, anemia can take a long time to reverse.
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Pneumonia is classified on the basis of the parts of lungs which are affected and one of those types is the bronchial pneumonia.
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She should have been going to a doctor.
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