On Friday, medical examiners concluded their examination into the death of the adored but troubled American and Canadian TV star Matthew Perry, revealing that the actor from “Friends” passed away due to an accidental overdose of ketamine.

The popular TV comedy star Perry, who portrayed Chandler Bing from 1994 to 2004, passed away at the age of 54 after being discovered unresponsive in the swimming pool at his Los Angeles home in October.

He had battled drug addiction for decades, including ketamine addiction, and associated severe health problems; nevertheless, before to his death, he had apparently been drug-free for 19 months.

“Matthew Perry’s cause of death is determined to be from the acute effects of ketamine,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office said in a statement.

“Contributory factors in his death include drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects. The manner of death is accident. ”

Ketamine is illegally used as a recreational drug for its numbing and hallucinogenic effects.

The drug can also be used by doctors as an anesthetic, and researchers are exploring its use as a mental health treatment.
Perry wrote in his memoirs of how he had relied on using ketamine daily at points during his battles with addiction. He said the drug eased his pain and helped with depression.

“Has my name written all over it — they might as well have called it ‘Matty,'” he wrote, of ketamine.

“Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel,” explained Perry.

“Friends,” which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive global following.

But even as he delivered on-air gag after gag — and earned a fortune — Perry was struggling.

He attended multiple rehabilitation clinics to combat addiction to painkillers and alcohol. In 2018 he suffered a burst colon, related to drug usage, and underwent multiple surgeries.

In his memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” published last year, Perry described going through detox dozens of times. He dedicated the book to “all of the sufferers out there,” and wrote in the prologue: “I should be dead.”

“I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps over the years.”
The examiner’s report does not specify how or when Perry had consumed the fatal dose of ketamine.

But it found that trace amounts were detected in his stomach, and that prescription medications and loose pills were present at his home.

Perry was undergoing medical treatment involving ketamine — but his most recent known infusion was more than a week before his death, meaning that dose would no longer have been in his system.

The examiner’s report says the levels of ketamine in Perry’s blood were comparable to higher-range levels used as general anesthetic in surgeries, and would cause overstimulation of the heart and problems breathing.

This could have caused Perry to lapse into unconsciousness, with drowning then becoming a contributory cause of death.

According to the research, Perry would have been more susceptible to the effects of ketamine because of his coronary artery disease and his usage of buprenorphine to manage severe pain.

The autopsy results revealed that he had no alcohol in his system. Additionally, there were no evidence of any other narcotics like fentanyl, heroin, or cocaine.

Matthew was an American and Canadian actor. He gained fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004). Perry also appeared on Ally McBeal (2002) and received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in The West Wing (2003) and The Ron Clark Story (2006).

He played a leading role in the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–2007). He also became known for his leading film roles in Fools Rush In (1997), Almost Heroes (1998), Three to Tango (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Serving Sara (2002), The Whole Ten Yards (2004), and 17 Again 2009.