Late actor Mathew Perry's female friend mentioned that he appeared 'angry and mean' in the weeks leading up to his death, attributing it to his use of testosterone shots. Perry's autopsy report paints a darker picture of his final days, revealing a lethal combination of ketamine and the opioid-like drug buprenorphine. Additionally, the report disclosed his consumption of Tamoxifen for weight loss, antidiabetic medication, and nicotine lollipops, as reported by pagesix.com.
Before his death, he was trying to quit smoking. His live-in assistant said he had been smoking about two packs of cigarettes per day.
The medical examiner’s report further exemplified how heavily Perry relied on prescribed and over-the-counter medication to maintain his quality of life.
“In the assistant’s bedroom, there were multiple open, empty, half-filled medication bottles prescribed to the decedent, as well as over-the-counter medications, vitamins, digestive aids and dishes filled with multiple various loose pills, tablets, caplets, candy and breath mints,” the report read.
In Perry’s bathroom, there were “prescribed ointments, digestive aids and oral rinses.”
The 'Friends' star had been receiving ketamine infusions regularly before his death, but the report noted that the ketamine found in his body came from elsewhere.
His last infusion occurred a week and a half before he died, and its half-life is only three to four hours.
“It is more likely this was recreational ketamine use,” Dr. Bankole Johnson, neuroscientists and physicians told Page Six exclusively.
“It would be questionable medicine to provide ketamine to someone also using buprenorphine — a true recipe for disaster.”
Perry had previously written about his dislike of ketamine in his 2022 memoir 'Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir', saying he often felt like he was “dying” during the treatments he received while staying at a Swiss rehab during the pandemic.
“Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel,” he penned.
“Ketamine was not for me.”
In fact, Perry was supposed to be off his infusions before he died, as his anesthesiologist Dr Ataoin (whose name was partially redacted in the autopsy report)‚ said he no longer needed the treatments because “his depression was fine.”
Furthermore, the unnamed female to whom the medical examiner spoke said the beloved actor was even in “good spirits” during their final conversation that took place days before his death.
This corroborates Jennifer Aniston’s story, who said she spoke to Perry the morning of October 28, hours before his assistant found him face-down in the pool of his $4 million Hollywood mansion.
Perry, who revealed in 2022 that he spent about $9 million trying to stay sober throughout his life, wanted to be remembered not as Chandler Bing, his iconic “Friends” character, but as someone who helped guide people through their addictions.
(With IANS inputs)