WESTWOOD\u2014The Los Angeles County Coroner\u2019s Office released a report on Monday, June 19, revealing that\u00a0\u201cStar Wars\u201d actress Carrie Fisher had cocaine and other drugs in her system at the time of her death on December 27, 2016.<\/p>\n
Fisher became unresponsive after going into cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles on December 23. She remained in critical condition and on a ventilator before she died four days later, at the age of 60.<\/p>\n
The autopsy report was based on toxicology screenings done when Fisher arrived at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in December. Traces of cocaine, methadone, other opiates, alcohol, and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, were detected in her system. According to the tests, the cocaine may have been taken in the last 72 hours prior to her death. It is unclear when the other drugs in her system were consumed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are significant limitations in one\u2019s ability to interpret toxicology results and their contribution to cause of death,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n
Investigators could not determine exactly what role the drugs played in Fisher\u2019s death. The latest test results were revealed three days after the coroner\u2019s office released a preliminary report of its findings on Friday, June 16, which listed sleep apnea as a cause of death, along with a history of atherosclerotic heart disease, drug use, and other undetermined factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life,\u201d Billie Lourd, Fisher\u2019s daughter, said in a statement to People magazine. \u201cShe ultimately died of it. She was purposefully open in all of her work about the social stigmas surrounding these diseases. She talked about the shame that torments people and their families confronted by these diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actress\u2019 brother, Todd Fisher, noted that his sister\u2019s battle with drug addiction and mental illness \u201cslowly but surely put her health in jeopardy over many, many years.\u201d Fisher, also an author and screenwriter, was open about her struggle with drugs and bipolar disorder. She said she first smoked pot at 13 years old, used LSD by 21, and underwent electroshock therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to know what killed her, it\u2019s all of it,\u201d Todd said, according to reports.<\/p>\n
Fisher was the daughter of singer and actor Eddie Fisher and \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain\u201d actress Debbie Reynolds, who died one day after her daughter on December 28, at age 84.<\/p>\n
Fisher made her feature film debut in \u201cShampoo\u201d in 1975, alongside Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. She is best known for playing Princess Leia in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise, including \u201cThe Empire Strikes Back\u201d (1980), and \u201cReturn of the Jedi\u201d (1983). In 2015, she reprised her role as Princess Leia in \u201cStar Wars: The Force Awakens,\u201d alongside Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Peter Mayhew, who were all cast in their original roles. She completed filming for \u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi” before her death,\u00a0which will be released in December 2017.<\/p>\n
Fisher and her mother appeared in \u201cBright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds,\u201d a documentary about their relationship that premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and debuted on\u00a0HBO.\u00a0Fisher\u2019s memoir, \u201cThe Princess Diarist,\u201d based on diaries she kept while filming the original \u201cStar Wars\u201d trilogy, was released in November 2016. In March 2017, a public memorial was held for Fisher and Reynolds at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WESTWOOD\u2014The Los Angeles County Coroner\u2019s Office released a report on Monday, June 19, revealing that\u00a0\u201cStar Wars\u201d actress Carrie Fisher had cocaine and other drugs in her system at the time of her death on December 27, 2016. Fisher became unresponsive after going into cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles on December […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":69294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,24,9,55,70,21],"tags":[16917,880,643,17190],"class_list":["post-69293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-beverly-hills","category-celebrity","category-hollywood-hills","category-canyon","category-other-news","category-westwood","tag-autopsy","tag-carrie-fisher","tag-celebrity","tag-los-angeles-county-coroners-office"],"yoast_head":"\n