Accidents

I’m starting to wonder if people really know what “accidental” means. When I was just a young pup the word “accidental” was used to describe things that occurred unexpectedly or by chance. If something happened, no matter how unfortunate, which was painfully foreseeable nobody would be dumb enough to call it an accident.

So this brings me to tonight’s news. As usual, one of the lead stories was about Anna Nichole Smith. Apparently the autopsy came back. With bulletproof hair and shiny white teeth the talking head announced that Anna Nichole died because of an “accidental drug overdose.” Then, without even the slightest hint of irony the newsman went on to say, “Doctors say Anna Nichole took a sleeping pill along with at least 8 other prescription medications.”

Now I’m no pharmacist, and I only made it through 1 year of pre-med, but I dare say I have enough experience with those little orange-ish bottles to know that taking a sleeping pill on top of 8 prescription drugs is probably not a good idea.

Obviously there are circumstances which would make taking that many drugs “normal.” However, since I doubt Anna Nichole was sitting in intensive care after undergoing multiple organ transplants and chemotherapy, I just don’t see how she could be taking that many pills and not know she was going to end up foaming at the mouth on the bathroom floor.

If you ask me (which you must have because you’re reading my blog) I’m going to go ahead and say it was an intentional overdose. Not intentionally fatal, but intentionally beyond the recommended normal use taking in to account drug interactions and other factors.

So unless she slipped and fell into a giant Willy Wonka and the Pharm Factory vat-o-dope, let’s just say “Anna Nichole Smith died due to a fatal drug overdose.” We don’t have to say accidental, just an overdose.