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Artist News
Tom Petty died from accidental overdose, coroner’s report confirms
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 22 January 2018
Tom Petty died from an accidental drugs overdose, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed on Friday. The musician’s death was recorded as “multi-system organ failure” due to a “mixed toxicity” of seven prescription medications. The manner of death is documented as “accidental”.
Petty was found unconscious in his Malibu home last October and died later in hospital. His death came shortly after completing a Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers 40th anniversary tour.
In a joint statement, Petty’s wife Dana and daughter Adria said: “Unfortunately Tom’s body suffered from many serious ailments including emphysema, knee problems and most significantly a fractured hip. Despite this painful injury he insisted on keeping his commitment to his fans and he toured for 53 dates with a fractured hip and, as he did, it worsened to a more serious injury”.
“On the day he died he was informed his hip had graduated to a full on break”, they added. “It is our feeling that the pain was simply unbearable and was the cause for his over use of medication”.
Saying that they “feel confident that this was, as the coroner found, an unfortunate accident”, they went on to say that they recognise that the confirmation of the cause of Petty’s death “may spark a further discussion on the opioid crisis”
“We feel that it is a healthy and necessary discussion and we hope in some way this report can save lives”, they said. “Many people who overdose begin with a legitimate injury or simply do not understand the potency and deadly nature of these medications”.
