Published
Thu, Jun 2, 2016, 18:09
- The news comes a month and a half after the singer's death on April 21st.
An investigation into the circumstances of Prince's death has linked the singer's physical collapse to ongoing issues with opioids.
The investigation, which has been carried out by local authorities in concert with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney's Office, has revealed Prince was undergoing intensive treatment for opioid use in the weeks leading up to his death. As previously reported, Prince's plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois on the way back from some shows in Atlanta six days before his death. The Associated Press reports that anonymous sources say, "Prince was found unconscious on the plane, and first responders gave him a shot of Narcan, an antidote used in suspected opioid overdoses," in line with TMZ's claims that he was treated for a Percocet overdose.
This afternoon, CNN quoted the medical examiner's report as saying: "How injury occurred: The decedent self-administered fentanyl." Fentanyl, usually prescribed by doctors for cancer treatment, is a pain medication 25 to 50 times stronger than heroin and 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
Records now show Prince was under the care of two doctors in the weeks before his death—Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, a family practitioner, and Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a California addiction specialist. The latter was summoned by Prince's handlers on April 20th, a day before his death. Schulenberg saw Prince twice in the weeks leading up to his death, on April 7th and 20th.
Kornfeld, who was called on in the midst of a medical emergency but faced with a scheduling conflict, sent his son Andrew on a redeye flight to Prince's Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, MN. Though the junior Kornfeld is not a doctor, he was carrying Buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid addiction that would have been administered under the care of an unnamed local doctor. Kornfeld was one of three people present at Paisley Park when Prince was found unconscious in an elevator and made the emergency 911 call.