Brittany Murphy's cause of death ruled "accidental," drugs played a role

Brittany Murphy’s cause of death has been determined by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. According to Yahoo! OMG!, the primary cause of Brittany Murphy’s death was pneumonia. Factors that contributed to her death included anemia, which is an iron deficiency, and drug intoxication. .

According to Yahoo! OMG!, Dr. Michael Baden said that, based on the Coroner’s determinations, prescription drugs probably played a large role in Brittany Murphy’s death.

He said, “If she died of pneumonia, that cause of death is a natural cause.” Brittany Murphy’s death has been ruled as “accidental” by the LA County Coroner.

Baden also said that it is uncommon for someone to die of pneumonia so quickly.

According to People News, Assistant Chief Ed Winter said that Brittany Murphy’s death could have been prevented.

He said, “Murphy was planning on seeing a doctor, but she unfortunately passed away before she did. This was a case of a person with pneumonia who was anemic (having a low blood count) who was taking medication when she should’ve been getting medical treatment” (People).

Winter said that all of the drugs which were found in Brittany Murphy’s system were over-the-counter and prescription medications, according to People.

The information about what exact drugs were in the actress’s system will be released at a later time.

Brittany Murphy’s mother, Sharon, and husband, Simon Monjack, have told investigators that the actress had been experiencing flu-like symptoms for a few days prior to her death on December 20th, 2009.

Monjack also said that while Brittany Murphy had been taking a few medications, she had not been abusing them. He mentioned that she had been on an antibiotic, cough medicine, and that she took anti-seizure medication.

Simon Monjack and Sharon Murphy both deny that Brittany Murphy had an eating disorder.

Friends of the actress feel that Simon Monjack should be investigated in Brittany Murphy’s death, but according to Winters, “He was never considered a suspect. No one’s criminally liable here because this has been ruled an accident” (People).

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