A “Friend” in Need—Two doctors charged in actor Matthew Perry’s tragic death from ketamine overdose

December 4, 2024

Matthew Perry’s Memoir: A Story of Addiction and Hope

In the autumn of 2022, when Matthew Perry published his revealing memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” about his harrowing, decades-long battle with drugs and alcohol, he was, he said, 18 months sober.

The actor—who starred as the lovably snarky (and, at times, disarmingly vulnerable) Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom “Friends” for 10 years—expressed over and over, in the book and interviews, that he wrote his story in hopes that it would help others struggling with addiction.

The memoir’s dedication reads, “For all of the sufferers out there. You know who you are.” In the book, a brilliant performer, famous for his side-splitting and utterly unique delivery of one-liners, delivered a raw and intimate self-portrait, a painful description of a devastating disease, from the vantage point of someone who seemed to be emerging on the other side, recovering. “I’ve surrendered, but to the winning side, not the losing. I’m no longer mired in an impossible battle with drugs and alcohol,” Perry wrote.

For fans of “Friends,” and of Perry in particular, it was such a hopeful and celebratory—if delicate—moment.

Even at the time, Perry acknowledged that he wasn’t out of the woods. “It’s still a day-to-day process of getting better. Every day. It doesn’t end because I did this,” he told The New York Times. But, he said in an interview with Diane Sawyer, he was “feel[ing] ok” knowing he had surrounded himself with a “safety net.” He had people around him to ensure he wasn’t fighting his war alone.

Tragic Death With Five Charged, Including Two Doctors

So it was especially heartbreaking, just shy of a year later when 54-year-old Perry was found unresponsive, floating face-down in the hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home. Several weeks later, the L.A. Coroner’s office autopsy report ruled the death “accidental” but revealed that Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning.

In the wake of the first anniversary of Perry’s death, there is a reckoning for individuals who directly contributed to his drug-related death—five people, including two physicians, have been charged by federal prosecutors.

Doctors and Dealers Charged in Connection to Matthew Perry’s Tragic Death

According to CNN, “Mark Chavez, one of the two doctors charged in connection with ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry’s death, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine as part of a plea agreement during a court appearance in Los Angeles.”

“Chavez said in his plea agreement that he and a second doctor, Salvador Plasencia, began supplying ketamine to Perry beginning around September 2023,” NPR reported. The doctors provided Perry with ketamine using falsified prescriptions and a supplier, Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen,” who prosecutors claim ran “a drug selling emporium” from her home in North Hollywood. Sangha and Plasencia have pleaded not guilty. Another alleged drug dealer, Erik Fleming, and Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who injected the actor with the drug multiple times the day he died, have, like Chavez, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine.

Records show that in the weeks leading up to Perry’s death, the two doctors exchanged texts wondering “how much this moron will pay” and “let’s find out.” Perry, a known addict, reportedly paid $55,000 for about 20 vials of ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges, the doctors making a massive profit.

As a condition of his plea agreement, Chavez has surrendered his medical license; he faces up to ten years in prison. “Sangha and Plasencia will be tried together, according to prosecutors,” CNN reported. Their trial is scheduled to begin in March 2025.

As several legal professionals have pointed out, such cases face numerous legal hurdles and can be very challenging to prosecute.

Suing a medical provider for overprescribing medication

In cases where injury or death results from a doctor overprescribing, criminal charges are not the only avenue for pursuing justice. Under certain circumstances, you can pursue a civil case against a doctor who negligently or recklessly prescribed medication. There are several key steps in this process:

• Duty of Care. It is first necessary (and typically straightforward) to establish that the doctor owed the patient a duty of care—that there was a doctor-patient relationship.
• Breach of Duty. You must then prove that the doctor breached this duty by failing to provide the accepted standard of care—in this case, by overprescribing medication. This can mean prescribing a drug that is not medically necessary or prescribing it in an amount or frequency that is not needed. It could also involve failure to monitor the patient’s use of the drug properly.
• Causation. You must be able to demonstrate that the doctor’s breach of care directly resulted in harm to the patient. For example, overprescribing the drug leads to serious health complications, addiction, overdose, or death.
• Damages. Last, you must show that the patient suffered actual damages due to the provider’s negligence. Medical expenses lost earnings, pain and suffering, and other costs related to the injury or death.

Seek Justice for Reckless Prescriptions Like Ketamine

If you or someone you love has suffered harm due to a physician’s excessive or reckless prescription of a medication, you may be entitled to compensation. Speak with an experienced California medical negligence attorney at Aitken * Aitken * Cohn.

Written on behalf of Aitken Aitken Cohn