It’s been six months since Carrie Fisher passed away unexpectedly at the age of 60.
To say she’s still missed would be an understatement.
On December 23rd, Carrie was on a flight from London to Los Angeles when she had a massive heart attack.
The plane was close to landing, and several medical professionals were onboard to assist her until she could get to a hospital, but unfortunately that didn’t matter.
A few days later, she died.
In January, a coroner listed Carrie’s cause of death as “cardiac arrest/deferred,” which was a bit curious.
Did that mean that they weren’t certain that she died of a heart attack? Or that she did die of a heart attack, but they weren’t exactly sure what caused it?
It’s hard to say.
But yesterday, a new coroner’s report was released. And the findings are just making things more tragic than ever.
According to the new report, there were several factors that resulted in Carrie’s death, including “buildup of fatty tissues in the walls of her arteries” and sleep apnea.
She also, and this is the kicker, “showed signs of taking multiple drugs.” She’d always been open about her struggle with substance abuse, and it seems it contributed to her passing.
With all of these factors, an exact cause of death wasn’t able to be determined.
Carrie’s brother, Todd, gave a statement about the new findings, saying that the family is “not enlightened. There’s nothing about this that is enlightening.”
“I will tell you,” he added, “from my perspective that there’s certainly no new news that Carrie did drugs.”
Todd also said that Carrie’s family didn’t want the further investigation of her death, and he pointed out that many of the drugs in her system were prescribed to treat her mental illnesses.
According to him, smoking and those medications exacerbated her heart condition, and “If you want to know what killed her, it’s all of it.”
But does he blame the doctors that prescribed those medications?
“They were doing their best to cure a mental disorder,” he explained. “Can you really blame them?”
“Without her drugs, maybe she would have left long ago.”
Carrie’s daughter, Billie Lourd, also gave a statement about the new report, saying that “My mom battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life. She 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,” Billie continued. “I know my mom, she’d want her death to encourage people to be open about their struggles.”
“Seek help, fight for government funding for mental health programs.”
“Shame and those social stigmas are the enemies of progress to solutions and ultimately a cure. Love you Momby,” she finished.
As always, rest in peace, Carrie Fisher.