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Brittany Murphy Death
Goodbye Brittany Murphy, Rest In Peace
Actress Brittany Murphy dies at 32, Brittany Murphy died early Sunday morning after she went into full cardiac arrest and could not be revived.
On December 20, 2009, Murphy was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering a full cardiac arrest and pronounced dead.
At 8:00 a.m. (16:00 UTC) on December 20, 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to "a medical request" at the Los Angeles home Murphy and Monjack shared. She had apparently collapsed in a bathroom. Firefighters attempted to resuscitate Murphy on the scene, and she was subsequently transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead on arrival at 10:04 a.m. after going into cardiac arrest.
Cause of death is yet to be determined, but Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told the Associated Press: "It appears to be natural." Full results will not be known until an autopsy is performed, and experts are looking into her medical records and toxicology reports.
Brittany Murphy's family said the actress was ill with flulike symptoms in the days before her death and prescription medications were taken from her home, the Los Angeles coroner's office said Monday.
The 32-year-old star of films such as "Clueless" and "8 Mile" died Sunday morning after collapsing at her Hollywood Hills home. Paramedics tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said they will conduct an autopsy Monday to try to determine what killed the actress, and said her death appeared to be from natural causes. He said the reported illness could have contributed to her death, but it will be weeks before a final determination is made.
Toxicology tests will be performed, and officials will contact her personal physician to get a better sense of Murphy's medical history, Winter said.
Neighbor Clare Staples said she saw firefighters working to resuscitate the actress Sunday morning. She said Murphy was on a stretcher.
Murphy's husband, wearing pajama bottoms and no shoes, appeared "dazed" as firefighters tried to save her, Staples said. "It's just tragic," she added.
"The sudden loss of our beloved Brittany is a terrible tragedy," Murphy's husband and family wrote in a statement. "She was our daughter, our wife, our love, and a shining star. We ask you to respect our privacy at this difficult time."
Murphy moved to Los Angeles with her mother, Sharon, in the early 1990s. Her career started with small roles in television series, commercials and movies, but her part in "Clueless" led to larger projects.
She is best known for parts in "Girl, Interrupted" and "8 Mile," and also voiced the character Luanne Platter for more 200 episodes on Fox's animated series "King of the Hill."
Her role in "8 Mile" led to more recognition, Murphy told AP in 2003. "That changed a lot," she said. "That was the difference between people knowing my first and last name as opposed to not."m She married British screenwriter Simon Monjack in 2007.
Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti, said he learned of her death from his son, the actress's brother, and was stunned.
"She was just an absolute doll since she was born," Bertolotti said from his Branford, Fla., home. "Her personality was always outward. Everybody loved her — people that made movies with her, people on a cruise — they all loved her. She was just a regular gal."
He said he hadn't heard much about the circumstances of Murphy's death. Bertolotti divorced her mother when Murphy was young and hadn't seen Murphy in the past few years. "She was just talented," Bertolotti said. "And I loved her very much."
~ AP writer Matt Sedensky in Miami contributed to this report.
What, Exactly, Are "Natural Causes"? And can they really explain Brittany Murphy's death from cardiac arrest at the age of 32?
The L.A. County Assistant Chief Coroner has stated that the death "appears to be natural." What does it mean to die of natural causes?
For a coroner, any death caused by disease or old age is natural. When someone dies a violent or suspicious death, medical examiners try to determine both a "cause" and a "manner." The cause refers to the biological condition that killed the victim—in Murphy's case, sudden cardiac arrest. The manner describes all the other circumstances that led up to that particular cause. Most states recognize five different manners: homicide, suicide, accident, natural, and undetermined. If a manner of death is deemed to be "natural," then the victim is thought to have died of an internal disease process or normal deterioration of the body. Outside forces, like chemicals or human intervention, had only a minimal influence. (There are some gray areas: Death by infectious disease is typically categorized as being natural, even though the killer microbes come from outside the body.)
In general, it's much easier to determine the cause of death than the manner. To say that Murphy died of sudden cardiac arrest means only that her heart stopped beating unexpectedly, a fact that might be explained by any of the five manner classifications. Her death might have resulted from "natural" conditions like an enlarged heart, thickened ventrical walls, disruptions in the heart's electrical signals, or clogged arteries—not unknown among 32-year-olds, especially if they have diabetes. Or it might have followed from the ingestion of drugs (like cocaine) or poisons—making it a homicide, a suicide, or an accident. (A massive blow to the chest can stop the heart, too, but that would have left obvious signs.) Drug deaths can be tough to categorize, because circumstantial evidence is required to separate accidental overdoses from suicides.
When all the tests are back from the lab, the medical examiner or the coroner—typically an elected official without medical training who consults the medical examiner—prepares the death certificate with the cause, manner, and a brief description. There is some variation in the forms. John Lennon's death certificate, for example, contains a series of causes to indicate the cascading physical effects of his gunshot wound.
~ By Brian Palmer
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