Drugs causing heart failure?

My closest friend, has been living with me for the past years. [ever since then I've had a crush on her] She's a major in English and human anatomy; and was accepted to Yale, but refused to go for how much money it costs. [shes quite poor, as am I.] As always, we got in a huge fight about it, and we didn't talk for about 4 hours. around 2 AM, she came down the stairs and passed out in the living room, and I realized she wasn't breathing and had no pulse. I called ambulance and they came, and now shes in the hospital,and shes "stable" and she'll be leaving tommarow. I was aware she is an avid codeine/morphine/whatever user, but she never overdosed and I feel so sh!tty, and so guilty.

could an overdose or combination of those drugs cause this? why did her heart stop? I'm so worried. :(

can you get in trouble for overdosing drugs once going to a hospital?

I'm not going to sugar coat this, sometimes a little ice water in the face (so to speak) is needed.

Your friend is a drug addict, and may be a suicidal one at that. Anyone who routinely ("avid user" your words) takes opiate cocktails, especially a lethal one (because this one killed her, she's lucky EMS was there to pull her back after she died) after an argument, needs serious help. I understand that she's smart enough to get into Yale. But having brains don't mean squat when you're a drug addict. I recall a sad news story a few years back of well respected Wall Street financial analyst who overdosed on heroin and died in her bedroom while her husband and kids were in the living room having dinner. Mommy just stepped away from the dinner table for a moment (to get her fix) and when she took a long time returning, they looked for her and found a corpse in the bedroom. Smart, eh?

What YOU need to understand is that she isn't smart enough to recognize that she has a life threatening addiction problem compounded by her psychiatric impairment (her obvious reliance on substances to deal with her anger and frustration).

Forget about getting her into "trouble" for overdosing, you too, are glossing over and ignoring the fact that dying is a lot more problematic. If you want to help her, you need to snap out of it and recognize that your casual acceptance of her drug habit is a part of the problem. I would focus on the more immediate need of saving her life first; she needs professional help.

Good luck.

Ralph

Alcohol and opiates such as codeine and morphine could cause the heart to stop.

Downers + downers, like sleeping pills and alcohol, or sleeping pills and opiates could also cause heart failure.

What happened most likely is she stopped breathing due to overdosing on opioids (Herion, Morphine, Codeine, etc) Once you stop breathing your heart is soon to follow. So YES these drugs can cause this!! ABSOLUTELY!! Every time you do about any of those drugs you are spinning the dice. You don't know how concentrated they are, and what is actually in it. I don't understand the question "can you get in trouble for overdosing drugs once going to a hospital?" Do you mean like in trouble with the police? While it is possible, most likely not. Most police officers will see that the person just almost died and that hopefully they learned their lesson. My question to you is are you a drug user as well?? If not then WHY in GODS NAME are you letting her live with you?? All you are doing is enabling her drug use. You might aswell be sticking the needle in her arm for her! I think YOU need to tell her to go to treatment or GET THE HELL OUT!! Hopefully almost dying will be her rock bottom! Good Luck!