What was Matthew Perry's cause of death?

Actor Matthew Langford Perry was born on August 19, 1969, and died on October 28, 2023. His role as Chandler Bing on the NBC comedy Friends (1994–2004) brought him international recognition.

Matthew Perry's death was caused by the "acute effects of ketamine." Court documents detailing Perry's final day on October 28, 2023, were made public after a police investigation that resulted in the charging of five individuals in connection with his death. Perry was found unconscious in his Los Angeles home's hot tub. That day, at 4:17 p.m., he was declared dead at the age of 54.

Perry fought severe drug and alcohol addictions for the majority of his life. He became a spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and an advocate for rehabilitation as a result of his recovery.

What did Matthew Perry die from?

When Perry was found unconscious at his Pacific Palisades home in Los Angeles, he was declared dead. The autopsy was conducted the next day by investigators. According to the results of an autopsy conducted on the "Friends" star, Matthew Perry passed away from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine. Based on the autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, Perry also drowned in "the heated end of his pool." However, this was just a secondary cause of his death on October 28, and was declared an accident.

Investigators learned from Perry's folks that he was receiving ketamine infusion therapy, an experimental treatment for depression and anxiety. However, the medical examiner stated that Perry's last treatment, which was administered 1 1/2 weeks before, would not account for the ketamine levels in his bloodstream, which were within the range allowed for general anesthesia during surgery. Usually, the medication is broken down within a few hours.

The reports have additionally linked coronary artery disease and buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder. When asked to review the postmortem report by The Associated Press, Dr. Andrew Stolbach, a medical toxicologist with Johns Hopkins Medicine, said the amount of ketamine discovered "would be enough to make him lose consciousness and lose his posture and his ability to keep himself above the water."

Matthew Perry’s struggle with health & addiction

According to Perry's memoirs, he had an addiction to alcohol by the time he was 14 years old. Following a jet ski accident in 1997, he developed a Vicodin addiction and spent 28 days in treatment at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in May 2000 at the age of thirty due to alcohol-induced pancreatitis.

Perry claimed in 2002 that despite his best efforts to refrain from alcohol on the Friends set, he occasionally arrived with severe hangovers and would shake or sweat heavily. Perry put Friends and Serving Sara on hold for two months in February 2001 to go into inpatient treatment for his alcohol, Vicodin, methadone, and amphetamine addictions. He later claimed that he had no recollection of the three years he spent working on Friends because of his substance use disorder.

Perry was hospitalized for five months in 2018 due to a stomach perforation. He nearly passed away while in the ICU after abusing opioids and causing his colon to explode. He needed a colostomy bag for nine months and was in a coma for two weeks. When Perry was admitted to the hospital, his family was informed by the physicians that his chances of life were only 2%. He had an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) system attached to him.

Two years later, Perry was receiving daily ketamine infusions while in treatment in Switzerland, where he pretended to be in agony to obtain a prescription for 1,800 mg of hydrocodone daily. Along with surgery, he received propofol, which caused his heart to cease beating for five minutes. During the subsequent CPR, eight of his ribs were fractured.

When he needed more drugs, he hired $175,000 for a private plane to take him to Los Angeles. In response to the doctors' refusal, Perry paid an additional $175,000 to return to Switzerland on a private plane. He calculated that he had spent $9 million on his addiction in 2022, which included 14 stomach surgeries, 15 rehab stints, twice-weekly therapy for 30 years, and almost 6,000 sessions of Alcoholics Anonymous.