IL Gov Blago Fundraiser's Suicide: APAP OD

[Dhedmo]

I'm posting this here because so many questions about APAP originate in this sub-Forum.

Many people, and inparticular a surprising number of generally new OPs, are often surprised to find out that one can die from aceteminophen (Tylenol, or the APAP in your Vicodin, Lortab, Norco, Percocet and Darvocet) poisoning. In fact, APAP accounts for more drug overdoses in the US and UK than any other drug (per Wiki, citing two papers).

Christopher Kelley, fundraiser for Rod Blagojavich under pressure to testify against the governor, tried to kill himself a couple times before succeeding last Sept. Toxicology reports are out and attribute the cause of death to APAP.

Quotes are from the Chicago Tribune, and for clarity do not appear in the order originally printed.

According to the police report, Kelly told Clarissa Flores-Buhelos while she was driving him to the hospital that "he had taken aspirin, Tylenol and rat poisoning." Another Kelly friend told police he found empty boxes of rat poison at the scene, but police also found evidence that Kelly had vomited.

...a toxicology report from the Cook County medical examiner's office only found pain medications in his system. The office said he overdosed on salicylate, used in such medications as aspirin and [APAP], Tylenol's main ingredient. A toxicology report also showed diphenhydramine, commonly sold as Benadryl.

The police report also detailed text messages between Flores-Buhelos and Kelly, including a plea for help sent via Kelly's cell phone late Sept. 11. "Come get me asap yard," said one of Kelly's last text messages.

He took numerous pills before Flores-Buhelos found him in a car parked nearby and took him to Oak Forest Hospital.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...,6109991.story


Benadryl can also be fatal. Some OPs might remember Theresa Duncan, most famous before her death for the blog, The Wit of the Staircase (http://theresalduncan.typepad.com/wi...rial-film.html), whose death by benadryl overdose, followed by her partner's (visual artist Jeremy Blake--Sea Change, by Beck; also the "color bars" in Punch Drunk Love: http://nonarrative.today.com/2008/11...blake-sampler/), was imortalized in the article, the "Golden Suicides" in Vanity Fair. Reportedly, Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) is working on a screenplay, and Gus Van Sant has signed on as a consultant to the project. (New York Post, Dec. 2008)

(http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fe...suicides200801).



Be safe.

[Ickyuck]

Hmm, unless I missed it, I'm wondering how much he actually consumed. Just curios!

[Dhedmo]

Originally Posted by Ickyuck

Hmm, unless I missed it, I'm wondering how much he actually consumed. Just curios!

4g is the official danger zone, very easily reached. But, yeah. The original reports all cited rat poison only, and the "news" is that any rat poison he had he apparently puked, and died of APAP. The latter point being more relevant to those pill-poppin fiends out there in Opioland.

[blackman]

I bet that damn Rod Blagojevich poisoned him.