Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden shared insights on the tragic deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans, whose bodies were discovered in the snow following a game day gathering.
Preliminary toxicology results indicated the presence of cocaine and fentanyl in the systems of David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson, as reported by TMZ. Dr. Baden discussed the potential impact of these substances on “FOX & Friends.”
“We have to wait for the official report to come out, but it appears, at this time, that there was fentanyl and other drugs present. Fentanyl is used by doctors because it’s a powerful painkiller, and one of the side effects is making a person sleepy, and what happened here, I think, could have been that before they used drugs together,” Dr. Baden said.
“The other three get sleepy and pass out outside, and because of the weather and because of the snow, the body temperature drops very quickly from 98 degrees to 80 degrees, at which point, less than an hour, the heart can’t beat anymore accurately, so they die of a cardiac arrest due to hypothermia,” he continued.
However, the wise pathologist was skeptical of the prospect that the deaths could be attributable to an outright overdose.
“It would be extremely unusual for a true overdose to kill them, but they would all get sleepy and if they pass out in the snow, they die. One of the factors is, it’s painless death,” he said. “They don’t have any pain when they pass out, or they don’t have any pain from the cold.”
Baden pivoted to address the opiate crisis more broadly, using the story as a case study of broader trends leading to tragic deaths across the country.
“That’s part of the problem. Fentanyl is very cheap. It’s very cheap for the drug lords… they can mix fentanyl with marijuana. They mix fentanyl with cocaine, and that’s why it’s much more powerful than the other drugs,” Baden said. So, the four of them may have not even known what they were getting. They might have thought they were getting cocaine, instead it’s fentanyl, and that’s why … we have to wait for the official toxicology report.”
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