Heath's family issued a statement which said "While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."

Had his doctors or friends realized the risks PharmaSURVEYOR shows, his respiratory troubles would have been treated differently, beginning with a full evaluation of his prescriptions.

By all accounts, Heath Ledger's death was caused by the legal pharmaceutical drugs he was taking. There is no evidence of overdose of any individual drugs. The Medical Examiner and many professionals have agreed that the problem was with the combination of drugs, not any individual prescription.

While every doctor and pharmacist would have warned against the combination of these drugs, it seems only Heath knew all the drugs he was taking and therefore was not warned about the risks of combining them. This is actually quite common as so many of us have multiple physicians and pharmacists who do not know of each other. PharmaSURVEYOR believes that this is part of the reason consumers need to become more informed about the additive toxicity of their drug regimens.

If only Heath Ledger had gone to PharmaSURVEYOR he would have seen all the risks of combining these drugs and this might have been a very different story. He could have asked the "First Question First" - Could my meds be causing symptoms? If he was already having symptoms he might have searched for breath and respiratory risks and would have found that he had a 10% risk of his drugs causing a life threatening decrease in lung function and been able to act accordingly. Then, there may have been no story at all because if his drugs had been adjusted at that time, the respiratory symptoms may have gone away rather than contribute to his untimely death.

References for the cause of Heath Ledger's Death

People magazine reported in Heath's Death was Accidental Overdose: Dr. Michael Hunter, a forensic pathologist, told PEOPLE Magazine that the combination of the powerful drugs most likely caused "poly-drug intoxication" which led to respiratory arrest. "His breathing probably got slower and slower until it stopped all together," he said.

Newsweek reported in Deadly Combo?: Terrence Blaschke, M.D., professor of medicine and pharmacology at Stanford University told Newsweek: " When you combine these drugs, they do act at different sites in the brain, and therefore they certainly can have additive effects in terms of depressing respiration. All of the drugs on that list are considered to be centrally acting respiratory depressants. If you take them in combination, they have what we consider to be additive effects on one another. That could cause respiratory arrest."

The website Wellness Resources reports in Heath Ledger Death Highlights Dangers of Medications:"Ledger was using a combination of four powerful central nervous system depressants, which caused his breathing to stop.  It is unclear if he was warned of the interaction of these medications.  It is unlikely that he knew that the adverse effects of these medications are cumulative with ongoing use, as the half-lives of the drugs build up in his system.  Since the medical examiner found no one drug in high amounts it was not an intentional overdose.  It is most likely that, like millions of Americans, he was simply trying to get a good night's sleep - unaware that his remedies could kill him."

Salon.com has an insightful discussion in Understanding Heath Ledger's death: "If a tired, stressed-at-work patient is sick, depressed over a relationship, having pain and develops insomnia -- as Ledger apparently did -- what does he do? He has no doubt been exposed to a media blitz, a tsunami of public proclamations asserting the prowess of a sleeping medication. Pop a pill and you get a perfect night's sleep, eight hours of bliss. Only after you see the beautiful people sleeping and waking refreshed to win a Nobel, and after a sweet voice describes the pill's perfection, do you hear a mellow reminder of the side effects. Be careful, don't drive or drink and, oh, yes, sleeping pills can be addictive. The warning may even advise you to talk to your doctor about other medications. However, no notation is made that with prolonged use, the pills tend to be less effective so that you will want to increase the dose. For the average person, without knowledge of pharmacology, the risk of such blandishments can be high -- serious side effects and death."