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  • Prince's Cousin Reflects On Late Singer's Overdose Prior To His Death

    Prince's Cousin Reflects On Late Singer's Overdose Prior To His Death

    “Somebody should be held accountable and I hope to make sure that happens someday.”

    A week before his death, Prince reportedly overdosed on a plane ride and was subsequently revived with the help of Narcan. The icon’s death would go on to overshadow the near-fatal overdose that preceded it, but now his cousin Charles Smith is discussing the incident on a recent episode of E! True Hollywood Stories that focuses on the Purple Rain singer.

    On April 15, 2016, the singer reportedly stopped breathing mid-flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, so that first responders could revive him. Shortly after the singer was revived, he returned home and it was business as usual. 

    “Somebody was hiding something,” Smith said in the episode. “Prince is back to being Prince again and they take him back home. He should’ve never left that hospital.”

    Six days later, the 57-year-old musician was found dead of a suspected overdose. A toxicology report revealed that he had exceedingly high concentrations of fentanyl in his blood. 

    In 2018, after a two-year investigation, Carver County officials announced that no one would be held accountable for Prince’s overdose death. 

    Carver County Attorney Mark Metz said that Prince had taken counterfeit Vicodin which was laced with fentanyl. The singer reportedly had no idea the pills were counterfeit. Investigators were unable to find “sufficient evidence” that someone had provided him with the fake pills

    Smith expressed disdain for the lack of accountability for the late singer’s death.

    Who’s Accountable For His Death?

    “I knew this was going to be the result,” Smith said in response to the announcement. “Somebody should be held accountable and I hope to make sure that happens someday.”

    A federal lawsuit was brought against Dr. Michael T. Schulenberg, who had treated the singer twice in the week after his near-fatal overdose. The doctor stood accused of prescribing Percocet to Prince’s bodyguard though the Percocet was actually for the singer.

    Meanwhile the singer’s family filed suit against Schulenberg, Walgreens (who filled the prescription) and other individuals from Trinity Medical Center who they claimed “failed to appropriately evaluate, diagnose, treat and counsel Prince for his recognisable opioid addiction.”

    “We understand this situation has been difficult on everyone close to Mr. Nelson and his fans across the globe,” a lawyer representing Schulenberg said in 2018. “Be that as it may, Dr. Schulenberg stands behind the care that Mr. Nelson received. We intend to defend this case.”

    Schulenberg ultimately wound up settling for $30,000 with the feds. The wrongful death lawsuit is ongoing. 

    Moving Forward

    Smith has become an activist in the wake of his cousin’s death. During a January 2019 appearance at the third annual Opioid Awareness Day in St. Paul, Minnesota, Smith spoke about the opioid epidemic’s far reach. 

    “We’re losing legends, we’re losing potential legends and that’s a shame,” Smith said, according to The Star Tribune. “Prince had everything, everything you can ever want, and it touched him.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Prince’s Half-Sister Talks About His Death, Fentanyl

    Prince’s Half-Sister Talks About His Death, Fentanyl

    Sharon Nelson says the music icon was just trying to control his pain when he took the fatal dose of fentanyl.

    First came prescription drugs and heroin. Now, the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, is ripping through the country, killing scores of people who take heroin, cocaine or prescription pills that have been laced with fentanyl.

    That’s exactly what happened to Prince, according to his half-sister, Sharon Nelson. 

    Speaking with ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff for a 20/20 segment that will air Friday night, Nelson said that her brother was just trying to control his pain. 

    “He wouldn’t have taken a pill like that at all,” Nelson, Prince’s oldest sister, said in a preview released by ABC. “When you’re in pain, you’re going to take a pill, hoping it relieves it. You’re not thinking like that; you’re not thinking like a normal person who isn’t in pain.”

    Woodruff said that Prince’s death made fentanyl a household name and raised awareness about the drug. 

    “This is kind of a wakeup call for people around the country about the power and danger of these pills, from a man who—no chance given his intelligence and position in life—would never have taken a pill with so much fentanyl,” Woodruff said. 

    Fentanyl can be used in a medical setting to control severe pain. However, toxicology reports showed that the levels of the drug in Prince’s blood when he died in April of 2016 were extremely high and were a “smoking gun,” as to his cause of death. 

    “The amount in his blood is exceedingly high, even for somebody who is a chronic pain patient on fentanyl patches,” Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told the Associated Press earlier this year. 

    However, there are reports that the singer thought that he was taking Vicodin, not fentanyl pills. Nelson said the fact that her brother, an experienced opioid user, died from an overdose shows how dangerous fentanyl is.

    She said she hopes fans will realize that fentanyl is extremely dangerous and that it can be lurking anywhere—even when people think they know what drugs they are taking. 

    “After all that’s happened to Prince, I know, I can say for sure that his fans will never take that pill,” she said.

    The episode of 20/20 that Nelson appears on is focused on fentanyl, including investigating the source of illicit fentanyl from China and speaking with families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl overdose. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Prince’s Family Sues Doctor Who Reportedly Prescribed Him Pain Pills

    Prince’s Family Sues Doctor Who Reportedly Prescribed Him Pain Pills

    The lawsuit alleges that the doctor had to treat Prince’s opioid addiction prior to do his death but “failed to do so.”

    The family of Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson) is suing a doctor accused of playing a “substantial part” in the music icon’s death.

    According to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, the official cause of Prince’s April 15, 2016 death was an accidental overdose of fentanyl.

    The family is suing Dr. Michael Schulenberg in Hennepin County District Court in Minnesota, to replace the lawsuit filed in April in Illinois, according to the family’s attorney.

    The lawsuit alleges that Schulenberg and others—including the hospital where Schulenberg was working at the time)—had “an opportunity and duty during the weeks before Prince’s death to diagnose and treat Prince’s opioid addiction, and to prevent his death.” However, the family states, “They failed to do so.”

    The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages in excess of $50,000, ABC News reports.

    Authorities say the doctor admitted to prescribing oxycodone a week before his death, under his bodyguard’s name to protect his privacy.

    However, Schulenberg’s lawyer, Amy S. Conners, said in a statement that the doctor “never directly prescribed opioids to Prince, nor did he ever prescribe opioids to any other person with the intent that they would be given to Prince,” the New York Times reported in April 2017.

    Investigators later stated that it was possible that Prince was not aware that the medication he was taking contained fentanyl.

    “In all likelihood, Prince had no idea he was taking a counterfeit pill that could kill him,” said Carver County Attorney Mark Metz this past April, while announcing that no criminal charges would be filed in the musician’s death. “Others around Prince also likely did not know that the pills were counterfeit containing fentanyl.”

    Many of the medications found in the musician’s home were not in the original container provided by the pharmacy. “The evidence demonstrates that Prince thought he was taking Vicodin and not fentanyl,” Metz stated. “The evidence suggest that Prince had long suffered significant pain, became addicted to pain medications but took efforts to protect his privacy.”

    Walgreens Co., where some of the prescriptions were filled, is also named in the family’s lawsuit.

    Schulenberg’s attorney Paul Peterson maintained that the doctor did everything he could for the musician. “We understand this situation has been difficult on everyone close to Mr. Nelson and his fans across the globe,” said Peterson. “Be that as it may, Dr. Schulenberg stands behind the care that Mr. Nelson received. We intend to defend this case.”

    View the original article at thefix.com