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The hatred from supposedly compassionate and open-minded Hollywoodans is something to behold, isn't it? After all, just imagine despising a radio talk show host so much that you would suggest, on national television, that he should die of a drug overdose. Alas, such was the case Friday evening when HBO's Bill Maher actually asked guest P.J. O'Rourke, who was talking about Rush Limbaugh's use of the prescription drug OxyContin (video available here courtesy our friend Ms Underestimated): Why couldn't have he croaked from it instead of Heath Ledger? Honestly, can you imagine? MSNBC's David Shuster was suspended on Friday for...

Just broke on Fox - details to come.

AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON --Improper use of patches that emit the painkiller fentanyl is still killing people, the government said Friday - its second warning in two years about the powerful narcotic. Some of the deaths came after doctors prescribed the patches to the wrong patients, the Food and Drug Administration said. The drug is only for chronic pain in people used to narcotics, such as cancer patients, and can cause trouble breathing in people new to this family of "opioid" painkillers. Yet the FDA found cases where doctors prescribed it for headaches or post-surgical pain. The FDA said patients...

"Paulo Melo, 29, has been in a coma at the Royal Darwin Hospital for two weeks, after severing his spinal cord in a car crash." - read more below: doctor requested, family objected, court granted

Even on a gray day in Paris last week, there was one place you could find a crowd of tourists from places as varied as Rome, Tokyo and Orlando, Florida — gathered at the Pere Lachaise cemetery, around the graveside of Jim Morrison. Forget Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and the hundreds of other luminaries interred among its chestnut trees, the frontman of The Doors has long been the cemetery's headline draw. Part of the attraction is the almost mystical magnetism he exuded in life; part is the macabre mystery of his demise: How did one of the legends of the rock...

A budding teenage athlete has died after 'overdosing' on a common topical muscle cream. The medical examiner announced on Thursday that the 17-year-old track star, Arielle Newman of Castleton Corners, N.Y., died from a toxic dose of sports cream, the Staten Island Advance reported. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's officer told the Advance that the Notre Dame Academy track star's blood contained lethal amounts of methyl salicylate, the active ingredient found in muscle rubs such as BenGay and Icy Hot. Borakove said the petite girl used the topical medication excessively, allowing the poisons to accumulate in her...

SAN DIEGO – A Santee woman was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and of furnishing narcotics to a minor after her daughter's friend took methadone pills that resulted in her death, officials said. Laura Wion, 36, is accused of supplying her daughter's 17-year-old friend with eight prescription methadone capsules on Aug. 25, 2006, said Paul Roberts, special agent supervisor with the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. The girl took all eight capsules and died Aug. 26, 2006 of a methadone overdose, he said. It is not known if the girl took all of the capsules at once....

A biography of late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley might be turned into a movie, reports Blabbermouth.net. A press release from Arts Publications indicated that Argentinean journalist Adriana Rubio has been contacted by Philadelphia-based filmmaker Eric Moyer about making a film version of her book, Layne Staley: Get Born Again. Moyer said in a statement, "I am determined to make this film about Layne Staley, not only to celebrate his life and talent, but to warn others through his compelling story that heroin will kill you...no matter who you are." Staley died in April of 2002 after struggling with...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son died from a lethal combination of a drug that treats heroin addiction -- methadone -- and two antidepressants: Zoloft and Lexapro. That's what the pathologist Smith hired is saying. Cyril Wecht says the level of the drugs taken "point to this being a tragic, accidental, drug-related death." Daniel Smith died in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas on Sept. 10. He was visiting a few days after she gave birth to his half-sister.

INDIANAPOLIS -- An error at an Indianapolis hospital killed two premature newborn babies late Saturday night and sparked an internal investigation at the hospital. Officials at Methodist Hospital said Sunday that 2-day-old Emmery Miller and 5-day-old D'Myia Nelson were given lethal doses of the drug Heparin by mistake. Hospital officials called the incident rare and isolated, and said their thoughts and prayers go out to the newborns' families. Six babies in the newborn intensive care unit were given adult doses of Heparin because of a procedural error, according to Methodist Hospital president Sam Odle. "One baby received three doses. One...

Fans of the King from around the world are in Memphis, Tenn., honoring the 29th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Presley died of heart disease and prescription drug abuse at his Graceland mansion on Aug. 16th, 1977. The singer's fans traditionally file past his grave site at Graceland on the eve of the anniversary. A spokesman says as many as 10,000 fans could visit the mansion for this year's vigil. President Bush and his wife, who brought Elvis fan and Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi to Memphis in June for a tour of Graceland, sent their regards.

5 Lakeland Junior High School students have been given emergency medical treatment and transported to Kootenai Medical Center for overdosing on non-prescription, Over-The-Counter medication. Lakeland School District's Ron Schmidt tells KREM 2 News that the students took Robitussen capsules while at school. Soon after they felt ill and began vomitting. School administrators called paramedics who transferred the sick students to the hospital. KREM 2 News has a crew on the way and will have update as soon as they are available on KREM.com. Tune into KREM 2 News at 5pm & 6pm for a live report from Coeur d'Alene.

LOS ANGELES - Actor Chris Penn died accidentally from an enlarged heart and the effects of a mix of multiple medications, the county coroner's office said Monday. Penn, 40, the younger brother of Sean Penn, was found dead in his Santa Monica condominium on Jan. 24, but the results of his autopsy and toxicology tests were not released until Monday. The primary cause of death was "nonspecific cardiomyopathy," an oversized heart, with the "effects of multiple medication intake," according to a statement issued by the coroner's office. "We know he had several prescriptions, including promethazine with codeine, which featured predominantly...

Girl, 15, given radiation overdose LUCIE CHRISTIE AN INVESTIGATION is under way at a top cancer hospital today after a teenage patient was given a massive overdose of radiation up to 17 times during treatment. Lisa Norris, 15, was given the overdoses at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow, where she was treated for a brain tumour. The hospital has blamed human error for the overdoses. The effects of the overdoses are not yet known, but the parents of the teenager from Girvan in Ayrshire said doctors had warned that the extra radiation could prove fatal. Staff at the hospital...

Michael Jackson has suffered an overdose from drugs and alcohol and is said to be in a critical condition in Bahrain. That is what the National Enquirer can reveal police in Santa Barbara, California, have been told by a source close to the singer's family. The Santa Barbara police, located near Jackson's Neverland ranch, investigated

LOS ANGELES - The 24-year-old son of O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro died at a hospital after being found unconscious, and the coroner's office said he had tested positive for amphetamines. Brent Shapiro, a University of Southern California graduate who had just enrolled in law school, died Monday. He had been found unconscious the morning before. Officials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Hospital told the coroner's office that Shapiro had tested positive for the drug, said Lt. David Smith, a coroner's office spokesman. "It's being considered an accidental death," he said. An official ruling on cause of death will be...

Prescription medication was stolen from a locked cabinet. Four patients are doing well. WILKES-BARRE – Four teenagers at a residential mental health facility overdosed Thursday on prescription medication stolen from a locked cabinet, said an official at the treatment center. Staff at the BridgeView facility on New Hill Street discovered that the four teenage patients had overdosed on Thorazine, a prescription sedative, shortly after 11 a.m. Paramedics and police responded and transported the teenagers to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. Joe DeVizia, president of the Children’s Service Center, which operates the residential facility, declined to indicate the ages of the patients. Male...

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch Parliament wants to ban the supply of prescription medicine via internet websites following the recent overdose death of a depressive 44-year-old woman. A majority of Lower House MPs will now ask Health Minister Hans Hoogervorst to ban internet prescriptions, RTL News reported. Liberal VVD MP Schippers told television programme Nova on Monday night that the Gelderland woman committed suicide after obtaining the medicine from www.dokteronline.com. The doctor prescribed the painkiller Depronal, which is regulated under the Dutch opium law. He had no personal contact with the woman, who had tried on previous occasions to commit suicide....

Beware not the ides but the start of March – and April and May and every month. In the first few days of each month, fatalities due to medication errors rise by as much as 25 percent above normal, according to new research by University of California, San Diego sociologist David Phillips. Published in the January issue of Pharmacotherapy, the journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the study is the first to document a beginning-of-the-month spike in deaths attributed to mistakes in prescription drugs. The primary suspect, Phillips says, is a beginning-of-the-month increase in pharmacy workloads and a...

DID BILL CLINTON OVERDOSE ON COCAINE?By Christopher RuddySeptember, 1999.Now that the press has raised the "coke" question in their dogged pursuit of George W. Bush, questions about Bill Clinton's drug past are also fair game.One area of inquiry for the news hounds at, let's say, the Washington Post, might be an incident that supposedly took place in the early 1980's when Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas.Dr. Sam Houston, a respected Little Rock physician and once a doctor for Hillary's cantankerous father, Hugh Rodham, says it is well known in Little Rock medical circles that Clinton was brought to a...

Editor's Note: Local radio's lone liberal voice Thursday, May 20, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury The myth of the "liberal media" endures, despite the fact that it's an absurd notion. It survives, in part, because the right-wing media have found it to be an effective mantra to boost circulation and ratings. Conservatives clearly have the upper hand on television, where it's increasingly difficult to find a liberal voice (Lisa Simpson being a dependable exception). The cable news talk shows pretend to present both sides of issues when in reality a centrist is usually trotted out to represent a counterpoint...

DEL CITY -- An 8-year-old boy overdosed at school, reportedly on 25 Ritalin pills. Dakota Loflin was transported to a local hospital. His doctor said it could take three days for the medication to wear off. The boy's mother said on the last day of school, which was Tuesday, the school secretary sent Dakota home with the bottle of Ritalin and he ate all of them. Doctors are waiting to see if there is permanent damage.

LANCASTER - Pain and trauma were constant themes in Helen Carreon's life. In the end, it may have been the pain that killed her. The 30-year-old mother of six was found dead in her Lancaster home on Elm Avenue the morning of Feb. 28, the victim of what appears to be an accidental pain medication overdose. The last two weeks of Carreon's life were a series of tragedies, beginning with a gunshot wound on Valentine's Day. The bullet, which pierced her leg, was allegedly fired by her jealous boyfriend, Byron Matheu, 25, a parolee and reputed gang member. Three days...

A word to the wise for Thanksgiving: I'm sending a rather graphic picture of an overdose, not for shock value, but in the hopes that you folks will think about knowing your limits and when to just walk away. When you view this picture, remember: this didn't have to happen!!

Mom found guilty in teen's overdose Fort Worth Star Telegram Aug. 30, 2003, 12:36AM FORT WORTH -- A mother who used heroin with her 15-year-old daughter hours before the teen died of an overdose was convicted of manslaughter Friday. It was the first time Tarrant County prosecutors won a conviction against a drug provider in the death of a person who overdosed on the drug. "You don't do heroin with your children. Period," lead prosecutor Mitch Poe said in his final argument. Jurors deliberated about an hour and 45 minutes before finding Debra Gatlin Clair guilty of recklessly causing the...