The latest equation in the Anna Nicole Smith saga adds up to to 11 prescription medications, three different patients and one doctor.
According to documents released by the Broward County, Florida, medical examiner's office Wednesday, Smith's friend and psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich prescribed all 11 medications found in the former Playmate's hotel room at the time of her death.
Most of the meds were authorized in Howard K. Stern's name, while none of them were authorized in Smith's name.
In all, eight medications were prescribed to Stern, one to Eroshevich herself and two to someone by the name of Alex Katz. It was unclear whether Katz was an alias, or someone connected to Smith.
Some 600 pills, including 450 muscle relaxants, were missing from prescriptions that were only five weeks old. It was unclear whether Smith consumed all of them herself.
Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper said that he believed all the drugs were intended for Smith, even though Eroshevich prescribed them to others.
Eroshevich was Smith's frequent companion in the Bahamas in the days after her daughter's birth and son's death, and traveled to Florida with Smith and Stern in the days ahead of Smith's death on Feb. 8.
After witnessing Smith's grief in the days after the death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, she prescribed the chloral hydrate that would ultimately cause Smith's death, though she authorized the powerful sleeping aid in Stern's name.
Lilly Ann Sanchez, an attorney for Stern, said that Eroshevich prescribed the chloral hydrate because she was aware that conventional sleeping aids such as Ambien were ineffective on Smith and decided to go with "an older tried and true medication."
"The chloral hydrate indeed was effective and as expected it gave Anna the relief that she needed in those agonizing months after Daniel's death and allowed her to sleep," Sanchez said last week.
Unfortunately, Eroshevich was apparently unaware that the chloral hydrate would prove lethal when combined with the numerous other medications that she had prescribed to Smith.
"Anna died of an accidental overdose of her sleeping aid chloral hydrate. It's horrible. It's painful. It's tragic, but it is an accident," Sanchez said.
The California Medical Board has declined to comment on whether Eroshevich's actions in the case are under review.
Tamiflu: Antiviral flu medication, prescribed Feb. 5, 2007; eight pills left out of 10.
The medical examiner's report did not mention who may have prescribed two other drugs found in Smith's system at the time of her death: the antianxiety medication Ativan and the painkiller methadone. Nor was it clear where Smith obtained human growth hormone, the muscle-building, fat-reducing agent she was said to have been taking when she died.
Smith was buried in the Bahamas on Mar. 2, following a lengthy legal battle over where her remains should be laid to rest.
A second legal battle rages on over the paternity of her daughter, Dannielynn, while an inquest into her son Daniel's death in September has temporarily been put on hold.
Wed Feb 28 16:15:00 PST 2007 86 comments Expand ') Expand Expand All Collapse All I think it is going t...
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