Thank you for posting this link.
The reporter said the drugs Heath took impaired his brain stem function that controls breathing and he never woke up so this could have been happening to MJ too. Dr. Klein said Michael's nose and jawline collapsed and had to be rebuilt in the Spring of 2009 along with the skin on his face. Attending rehearsals after your face collapsed must have been terrifying.
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According to the medical examiner's office, Ledger took "prescribed therapeutic doses ... or less" of each medication he ingested. However, the medications were not meant to be taken together. The cumulative effect was that the actor's brain stem function that controls breathing was impaired and Ledger "fell asleep and never woke up."
In an interview with The New York Times in November, Ledger revealed that he was taking the sleep medication Ambien to get rest, but to no avail. He had thrown himself into his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," the latest film in the Batman franchise, scheduled for release this summer.
"Last week, I probably slept an average of two hours a night," he told the newspaper. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.''
