Matthew Perry, the star of “Friends,” died as a result of complications from ketamine, a drug used for its therapeutic effects and also recreationally. This is the key conclusion the Los Angeles Coroner's Office draws about one of the most shocking deaths of 2023. The 54-year-old actor died at his apartment on October 28th. Many had speculated about what caused the death of Perry, who was found unconscious in the hot tub at his home. Authorities believe he drowned because of the drugs. “The death was ruled accidental,” the coroner states in the document.
Perry struggled with addiction to alcohol and barbiturates throughout his adult life, as he himself admitted in his memoirs published last year. On the Saturday of his death, the actor had been playing pickleball for two hours at a club near his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Los Angeles police found him around 4 p.m. after a call from his assistant.
The autopsy was performed a day later, on Sunday, October 29th. The first tests carried out on the body ruled out that the cause of death was methamphetamine or fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opiate that has caused an epidemic in the United States that has even killed several celebrities such as Prince and Michael K. Williams. one of the protagonists of The Wire. The document released Friday confirms that Perry had no other substances such as alcohol, cocaine or heroin in his system.
The coroner says Perry had been sober for nine months. However, the actor had undergone ketamine infusion therapy, a drug used in therapeutic treatments and approved by the FDA, the medical devices and food regulator, since 1970. The protagonist of Friends consumed it to combat depression and anxiety. According to the report, Perry's last therapy before his death took place a week and a half before his death.
The actor resorted to this therapy months before his death. However, the forensic experts believe that the rest of the drug found could not have come from this session, “since its half-life in the body is three or four hours or even less.”
Authorities say traces of ketamine in Perry's bloodstream caused hyperstimulation of the cardiovascular system and breathing problems because fluid entered his lungs. In his system, forensic investigators also found buprenorphine, a legal substance used by doctors to treat opioid addiction.