Matthew Perry's last words were allegedly asking his assistant Kenneth Iwamasa to "shoot me up with a big one" before being found unresponsive, according to a report by NBC News, based on court documents obtained by the news outlet.
The Friends actor was found dead in his Los Angeles home hot tub in October 2023, with an autopsy revealing he died from the acute effects of ketamine used for infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety.
Perry's assistant Iwamasa, two doctors (Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha, known as the Ketamine Queen), and others were arrested and charged with providing the fatal doses of ketamine to Perry, exploiting his addiction for financial gain, which ultimately led to his demise.
Perry had a severe ketamine addiction, receiving 6-8 shots daily. Iwamasa found him unconscious twice before the fatal overdose. The amount of ketamine in his system was equivalent to surgical anesthesia, and his autopsy revealed the cause of death was the acute effects of ketamine combined with coronary artery disease and buprenorphine presence.
An investigation to determine who supplied the ketamine that caused Perry's death began almost seven months after his death.
Toxicology reports revealed that the fatal dose of ketamine was not from Perry's prescribed therapy, and he was thought to be sober at the time of his death.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq
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