Actor Matthew Perry's death was an accident caused by the "acute effects of ketamine," medical officials in Los Angeles have confirmed. The star was found unconscious in the pool at his LA home in October, but a post-mortem examination was inconclusive at the time. Drowning was listed as a contributing factor in his death. He was best known for playing the wisecracking Chandler Bing on Friends. The series finale was watched by 52.5 million in the US, making it the most-watched television episode of the 2000s.
At the height of his fame, Perry was struggling with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and attended rehab clinics on numerous occasions. In 2016, he told BBC Radio 2 that he couldn't remember three years of filming during Friends because of drink and drugs. After attempts at treatment, he wrote in his memoirs that he had been mostly sober since 2001 — "except for about 60 or 70 mishaps."
Other contributing causes of the 54-year-old's death were ruled to be coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder, the Los Angelos County medical examiner said in a statement. "At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood samples, the primary lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression," Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Raffi Djabourian wrote, according to the Press Association .
“Drowning contributes due to the possibility of diving into the pool after he fell unconscious; coronary artery disease contributes to worsening ketamine-induced myocardial effects on the heart.”. He was found unconscious at his home on October 28 and doctors confirmed his death when called to the scene. A day later, the medical examiner's office updated its file to say his case had been postponed, and more details were needed.