On Friday, Andrew Kornfeld broke his silence in a guest column for CNN about the traumatizing moment he found the iconic artist unconscious in his Minnesota home. He was said to have suffered a unsafe mid-flight overdose just days before his death.
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Minnesota, like most states, runs a monitoring program to track prescriptions of opioids and other high-risk drugs. The prescription drug, often administered via injection, transdermal patch or in lozenge form, is typically used to treat patients with severe pain.
With a narcotic so powerful, abuse and illegal trafficking are bound to follow, and government statistics show that fentanyl has become one of the deadliest pharmaceuticals the Drug Enforcement Administration has to deal with.
It is not clear whether Prince had a prescription for fentanyl after a reported hip surgery.
When he was found, he was dressed in a black cap, black shirt, gray undershirt, black trousers and black socks.
Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, a family practitioner, treated Prince twice in the weeks before his death.
Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids jumped by 80 percent in 2014 over the previous year, the CDC said, suggesting much of the increase may reflect the greater availability of illegally made fentanyl.
Prince died of opioid overdose on April 21, a day before he was scheduled to meet with a doctor in an attempt to kick his opioid addiction. It’s also a street drug with ties to labs in China that produce fentanyl equivalents for global distribution. In the Twitter post, they stressed that they “will have no further comment”.
Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a California addiction specialist, was asked by Prince’s representatives on April 20 to help the singer.
It’s unclear whether Andrew Kornfeld is the subject of a separate investigation. William Mauzy, the Kornfelds’ attorney, said Howard Kornfeld sent with his son a small dose of buprenorphine, which is used to ease withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Although the doctor had prescribed Prince medication, it has yet not been revealed what this was or if the pop legend took it.
Kornfeld’s son Andrew had arrived at Paisley Park to explain the treatment to Prince when he discovered his lifeless body and called the 911 emergency line for help.
The medical examiner’s office, as is customary, gave no details other than the cause of death, with the sheriff’s department in Minnesota’s Carver County still investigating events leading to Prince’s sudden demise.
The problem of opioid addiction and overdose has been particularly acute in rural states with little history of dealing with drug epidemics.
“The decedent self-administered fentanyl” and the box marked “Accident” is checked in the report released on June 2. “We have to re-examine the way we’re treating pain”.
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The report also marks another heartbreaking turn for Prince fans who haven’t stopped mourning since his death. Sources close to the investigation, admit to knowing “for a long time” that Fentanyl was the cause of The Purple One’s death.
