The amount of ketamine “Friends” star Matthew Perry had in his system was equivalent to the general anesthesia given to surgical patients, according to his autopsy report.
The amount of ketamine “Friends” star Matthew Perry had in his system was equivalent to the general anesthesia given to surgical patients, according to his autopsy report.
The drug can leave users in a “trance” and be dangerous when taken in the amounts Perry appears to have ingested, especially if users enter the water while on it.
The 54-year-old actor, who long struggled with addiction, was found dead in his hot tub in October.
Dr. Philip Wolfson, one of the world’s foremost experts on ketamine and author of “The Ketamine Papers: Science, Therapy and Transformation,” said the amount found in Perry’s bloodstream was a lot.
“He really did himself in. He must have taken a large amount. You don’t do this and go swimming or go into a pool of any sort,” Wolfson, director of Director of the Center for Transformational Psychotherapy in San Anselmo, CA., told The Post Saturday.
Wolfson was not involved in Perry’s treatment.
Angelique Campen, an emergency room doctor of at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, told CBS News that ketamine can be dangerous when taken recreationally.
“What I foresee happened with him is, what it does is put you in kind of a trance state, so he probably was in the hot tub in a trance state, slipped under the water and drowned,” she said. “So, the ketamine in and of itself doesn’t stop your breathing, but it can keep you from waking up if you are submerged.
