Coroner’s report
How Carrie Fisher died
UNITED STATES: Carrie Fisher had cocaine, heroin and ecstasy in her system when she fell gravely ill on a flight from London to Los Angeles late last year, according to a coroner’s report released yesterday.
The Star Wars actress suffered ‘‘what appeared to be a cardiac arrest’’ on the flight as it approached Los Angeles and was rushed to a local hospital where she died four days later, according to the report.
Investigators said it was difficult to assess the effect of the drugs, some of which may have been taken days boarded the plane.
The coroner recorded the cause of death as sleep apnea, a disorder which causes the patient to stop breathing during sleep and can increase the risk of heart attack and heart failure, as well as ‘‘other undetermined factors’’, noting there was evidence of ‘‘multiple drug intake’’, but it was not clear if they played a part in her death.
Fisher, 60, had spoken and written extensively of her long battle with drug addiction and mental illness.
Her brother Todd, 59, said he was not particularly surprised that drugs were thought to be a factor in her death.
The report identified an underlying heart condition, which he thought must have been exacerbated by her smoking and the medications she took.
‘‘If you want to know killed her, it’s all of it.
‘‘I honestly hoped we would grow old together but after her death, nobody was shocked,’’ he said.
Fisher, the daughter of the singer Eddie Fisher and the actress Debbie Reynolds, made her film debut as a teenager and was barely in her 20s when she was catapulted to fame by her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars films. – The Times before she what