Yesterday, Whitney Houston’s final autopsy report was released to the media and others who immediately began misinterpreting the coroner’s findings. There is so much misinformation surrounding the autopsy report. Where do I begin?
First and foremost, Whitney died as the result of accidental drowning, meaning there was enough water in her lungs to interfere with the delivery of oxygen to her brain. The singer’s entourage found her face down and unresponsive in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton hotel on Feb. 11.
According to the report, Whitney’s drowning death was preceded by a cocaine overdose. Cocaine was found in her system, and cocaine residue was found on a spoon and on a rolled up sheet of paper in her hotel suite.
Someone supplied Whitney with that cocaine, since she obviously didn’t procure it for herself. Many in the industry believe a close friend of hers supplied her with the drug.
Whitney was a chronic cocaine snorter, as evidenced by the finding of a perforated posterior septum, which means a hole in her nose caused by chronic cocaine use.
Whitney was also vain about her appearance. The coroner had to pry a brown lacefront wig off her head which was “firmly attached to her hair.”
The coroner’s report also noted Whitney’s McGhan breast implants (size: 230 cc).
A sex assault kit was performed on Whitney in the hotel room where she died. If she had sex prior to her death, semen might have been collected. But that’s not likely since she was found submerged in water.
Now let’s get to the misinformation that is circulating.
This morning, an Atlanta area radio morning show reported incorrectly that Whitney’s body was scalded in 93 degree water that caused her skin to peel off. That’s not true.
Normal body temperature is 98.6 Fahrenheit. The boiling point of water is 212 F. Scalding hot water is around 120 F degrees.
Sketches made by the coroner indicates the condition Whitney’s body was found in after it arrived at the coroner’s office. This means, abrasions and other lacerations found on Whitney’s body were likely caused by the frantic attempts to pull her out of the tub and to revive her.
The skin peeling can also be explained: Whitney’s body was probably submerged in the tub for hours before she was found. Prolonged exposure of a dead body to water causes maceration, meaning the skin breaks down and allows water to shift from outside the skin to inside the skin. This causes the skin to lift in areas, almost like a burn.
So when the paramedics were attempting to resuscitate Whitney in the hotel room, the macerated skin shifted under the pressure, causing the “skin slippage” that you see on the autopsy sketch.
If Whitney had been scalded in hot water, the autopsy report would have indicated the presence of 2nd or 3rd degree burns on her skin.