In April, we lost a great figure in music. Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson, passed away on April 21 at the age of 57. He had recently been hospitalized for the flu. He was at his Paisley Park home in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Doctors were saying that he was going to have to have his hips replaced, but he refused the surgeries because of his Jehovah’s Witness beliefs.
Here is Mick Jagger’s beautiful series of tweets in tribute to Prince:
@MickJagger Sobre @prince pic.twitter.com/8wIeajKoz8
— Fidel Garcia (@f9d5l) April 21, 2016
Well, now his official cause of death has just been released. He died of an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate similar to morphine, but it is much more potent. It is used to treat people with severe pain or to help people after surgery.
Fentanyl is usually only prescribed by doctors, but it can me made illegally. It is 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin, and it is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The report from the medical examiner’s office said Prince self-administered the fentanyl and it was accidental.
Detectives questioned two doctors who saw the late singer in the weeks before he died. Prince had prescription painkillers in his possession. Dr. Michael Schulenberg prescribed medication to Prince the day before he died. The warrant didn’t say what the prescription was for or whether or not Prince took it.
He was cremated in a private ceremony the week he died. His family is planning a public memorial for sometime in August. He released over 30 albums in his lifetime; he reportedly wrote his first song when he was just seven years old. This talented man will surely be missed.
Featured image by Thomas via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
