Drowning whitney houston

The assistant left to pick up some items at a department store and by the time she returned, Houston was submerged in the tub, which was overflowing and had soaked the carpet in another room. Efforts were made to revive the Houston, including using a defibrillator, according to the report. Coroner's officials declined to discuss details in the report, including whether toxicology results showing the level of cocaine in Houston's body could be used to determine how recently she took the drug.

The office has said there were signs of recent and chronic use by the singer. Beverly Hills police have been awaiting the report before closing the case, although the agency has said there are no signs of foul play in Houston's death. The singer had battled addiction for years, but friends and family have said she appeared committed to making a comeback in the months before her death.

A trailer released Monday featured Houston prominently in her role as the matriarch of a family of girls who form a singing group and struggle with fame and addiction. Houston also wore dentures, the coroner's report indicated. This is relatively common among long-term drug abusers. Habitual use of drugs such as crack cocaine, which contains acidic chemicals, will lead to the wearing down of the tooth's pulpy tissue over time.

Tooth decay can also be the result of vomiting and tooth grinding, which is common among drug and alcohol abusers. The coroner said that mild emphysema was detected in Houston. Houston's voice was the gift she left for her fans, but sadly for her she was losing her beautiful voice at the time of her death.

From the final report, it now seems clear that not only did she struggle with illegal drugs and alcohol, but she was unable to stop smoking. Houston was discovered by her assistant the afternoon of Feb. Forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht said he does not fully concur with the final anatomical diagnoses on Houston, noting that the water in her tub at the Beverly Hilton was extremely hot at He believes this indicates that Houston was not sitting in her tub, and somehow accidentally drowned.

Spiller said that based on his experience with cocaine abusers, two things may have happened -- either Houston had a seizure and fell into the tub, or had a cardiac arrhythmia. An arrhythmia occurs when the heart stops beating properly and fails to pump for a period of time, depriving the brain of oxygen and causing a loss of consciousness.

It can be fatal. Toxicology testing measured. Spiller said for that level of cocaine to be in Houston's body, "we're talking about approximately half a gram of cocaine having been possibly ingested within 30 minutes to 90 minutes before her death. For someone who has been abusing cocaine, this may be their routine amount, but for someone who doesn't regularly use cocaine and therefore doesn't have a tolerance for the drug, this would be a high level.

Houston's cocaine use appeared to have occurred "in the time period just immediately prior to her collapse in the bathtub at the hotel," Chief Coroner Craig Harvey told reporters when he released the preliminary report last month.

Investigators found "a small spoon with a white crystal like substance in it and a rolled up piece of white paper" in the bathroom where Houston drowned, coroner's investigator Kristy McCracken wrote. Both can seriously disrupt the body's normal heart function. The reason cocaine was singled out in Houston's cause of death as opposed to the other drugs in her system is because the other drugs may not have been present in high enough levels for the toxicologist to deem them as contributing factors, according to Kobilinsky.

When a person consumes cocaine, the liver converts it into side products called metabolites, he said. Coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey told the Associated Press that the results indicated Houston was a chronic cocaine user. The anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the muscle relaxer Flexiril, both prescription medications, have potential for overdose, but Kobilinsky suspects the coroner didn't find enough cause for alarm.