Prince’s official cause of death was self-administered Fentanyl, a powerful prescription-drug about 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin. The manner of death was determined as accidental, according to the report from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office.
Fentanyl is usually prescribed to cancer patients and its illicit consumption is known to be causing a spike in overdose deaths in the United States, as reported by CNN. The report also stated that the singer will be cremated at the Cremation Society of Minnesota, but the exact date remains unknown.
The report did not specify whether the drug was illegally obtained due to it just stated the legally allowed information, which was the cause and manner of death. The artist weighed 112 pounds and was 63 inches tall at the moment of his examination.
Prince, whose full name was Prince Rogers Nelson, was found unconscious by staff members in an elevator at his residence in Minnesota on April 21. The singer had had an emergency landing days before and was treated for a potential overdose of pain medication, according to law enforcement officials.
Help on his way
Prince was supposed to be encouraged to get help by doctors specialized in addiction treatments on the day of his death. The specialized physician, Howard Kornfeld, contacted by Prince’s representatives the day before, could not leave right away to Minnesota, so he sent his son Andrew Kornfeld.
The 20-year-old pre-med student was sent to talk to Prince about addiction to prescription painkillers and try to convince him to join Recovery Without Walls, an outpatient addiction clinic in California, according to his family’s attorney William Mauzy during a press conference.
According to the attorney, Prince was scheduled to meet with a Minnesota doctor referred by Dr. Kornfeld while he arrived next day. Prince missed the morning appointment and was later when the 20-year-old Kornfeld appeared at Paisley Park.
At the moment of Kornfeld’s arrival, the singer could not be found by his staff members, and when he was finally located, Prince was unconscious in an elevator in Paisley Park, where his residence was located. The pre-med student was the one who made the 911 call, and Prince was later declared dead by the paramedics at the scene.
Kornfeld was carrying a starter dose of buprenorphine when Prince was found, a drug used to treat opiate addiction, but this was not injected at any time by the visiting member of Recovery Without Walls, according to Mauzy. The drug that Kornfeld was carrying is considered a controlled substance, similar to narcotics like Percocet, and gave the student some troubles with the authorities.
“Andrew’s purpose in being there was to describe the Recovery Without Walls program to familiarize Prince with that,” Mauzy explained. “Prince could go there for pain management or any addiction issues. This is something that Andrew has done for years,” he added.
Dr. Kornfeld was scheduled to arrive in Minnesota the next day. The specialized doctor was contacted by Prince representatives after the Purple-Rain-singer was reportedly administered “safe shot” after suffering an alleged overdose while flying home to Minneapolis.
Source: Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office.