Tom Petty died of accidental drug overdose: L.A. Coroner

Tom Petty died last year from an accidental overdose caused by a combination of drugs including opioids, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Friday.

An autopsy concluded that the rock singer died from “multisystem organ failure due to resuscitated cardiopulmonary arrest due to mixed drug toxicity,” and that he had also suffered from coronary artery atherosclerosis and emphysema, said Dr. Jonathan Lucas, L.A.’s chief coroner.

Substances found in Petty’s system included four opioids – fentanyl, oxycodone, acetyl fentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl –as well as temazepam and alprazolam, both sedatives, and citalopram, an antidepressant, the autopsy determined.

“A lot of these are found in prescription drugs,” said Brian Elias, a coroner’s spokesman, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Petty’s family said in a statement that he had been prescribed several medications to treat emphysema, as well as knee problems and a particularly painful hip injury that had plagued him during dozens of concerts he performed shortly prior to his passing last fall.

“Despite this painful injury, he insisted on keeping his commitment to his fans and he toured for 53 dates with a fractured hip and, as he did, it worsened to a more serious injury,” Dana Petty and Adria Petty, his wife and daughter, respectively, said in the statement. “On the day he died, he was informed his hip had graduated to a full-on break and it is our feeling that the pain was simply unbearable and was the cause for his overuse of medication.”

“We knew before the report was shared with us that he was prescribed various pain medications for a multitude of issues including Fentanyl patches and we feel confident that this was, as the coroner found, an unfortunate accident,” the statement said. “As a family we recognize this report may spark a further discussion on the opioid crisis and we feel that it is a healthy and necessary discussion and we hope in some way this report can save lives. Many people who overdose begin with a legitimate injury or simply do not understand the potency and deadly nature of these medications.”

Petty was found unresponsive at his Malibu home on Oct. 2 and taken to UCLA’s Santa Monica hospital in full cardiac arrest. He was subsequently placed on life support and died several hours later at the age of 66.

Petty sold millions of records worldwide as a solo artist, as well as with his groups Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Traveling Wilburys. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.