Chris Penn (brother of Sean Penn and Michael Penn) found dead

[Raisor]

RIP
Nice Guy Eddie

[Maldonado]

"I remember him most for his ruthless character in "Reservoir Dogs" and as the murdering pool cleaner in "Short Cuts.""

He had a small but very funny role in "True Romance". A great movie if you've never seen it before.

[Blimpie]

Preliminary coroner's report says he was 310lb at time of . I would say that heart attack would be pretty likely....

[savafan]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...nes-california

By Jill Leovy, Times Staff Writer

Actor Chris Penn's sudden death at age 40 last month was caused by a deadly heart condition, though a commonly prescribed cough syrup probably was a contributing factor, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Monday.

Investigators found that Penn died of "nonspecific cardiomyopathy" — a disease of the heart muscle that is usually fatal over time. Penn's heart was enlarged, weak and "could have given out at any time," said coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey.

But investigators also found that the effects of multiple medications were a "significant condition" contributing to Penn's death. They highlighted one prescription medication in particular — Phenergan, a commonly prescribed cough syrup that contains an antihistamine but is not typically considered dangerous in adults, according to doctors.

Harvey said the cough syrup, which also has codeine in it, played a role in Penn's death, but was "not a direct cause."

Penn also had other legal medications in his system, though Phenergan was the only one specifically identified by investigators Monday as a significant factor in the case. No illegal drugs were found, they said.

Cardiomyopathy is a progressive disease that weakens and scars the heart muscle, said Dr. Gerald Pohost, chief of cardiovascular medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine.

"It may take months, years or decades, but it usually leads to the patient's demise," he said.

Although Phenergan "doesn't cause heart failure," Pohost said, its sedative properties could increase breathing difficulties in obese patients and strain a heart already weakened by cardiomyopathy. Penn, a hefty character actor who played thugs and cops in a career spanning several decades, was 6 feet 2 and weighed 310 pounds.

He was found lying unresponsive in his bed by a housekeeper in his Santa Monica condominium Jan. 24. Coroner's investigators believe he died sometime the previous day, Harvey said.

He declined to give further details of autopsy and toxicology tests conducted by investigators pending the release of the coroner's official report on Penn's death.

Harvey said he did not know exactly how much Phenergan had been ingested by Penn.

But, he said, investigators found that the actor had a prescription for the cough syrup filled three days before his death, and that the bottle was one-quarter full when he died.

Primarily, Penn "just had a bad heart," Harvey said.

[macro]

Hmmm...I never knew Phenergan was used for that purpose. I thought it was solely to fight against nausea and vomiting.

[M2]

He turned out to be a real good character actor, but I'll always remember him for being the idiot lineman in "All the Right Moves" and for his role in what might have been the strangest teen film of the 1980s "The Wild Life." In those films he reminded me way too much of too many knuckleheads I knew in those years.

[westofyou]

My oldest friend has cardiomyopathy, known the guy for 30 years this month, has a pacemaker to control it.

Got it when he was 39 years old.

[Blimpie]

My oldest friend has cardiomyopathy, known the guy for 30 years this month, has a pacemaker to control it.

Got it when he was 39 years old.

WOY--I'll see your friend, and raise you a Blimpie.

Two years ago (age 36), I was diagnosed-quite by accident--with the same thing. To be precise, my condition is known as Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy. Because 30% of these cases are diagnosed via an autopsy (as was the case with Chris Penn), I feel pretty lucky to have found out about the condition at all. This condition is the single most common form of sudden cardiac death in athletes of all ages (think: Hank Gathers, Reggie Lewis, Jason Collier, Thomas Herrion, etc..)

In my case, I always knew that surgery would eventually be my fate. My local cardiologist had been trying to treat me with medicines for the last two years, but my condition was still degrading rapidly. Because I have three kids to think about, I decided that I had to have an interventional procedure done--sooner, rather than later.

Last month, I spent seventeen days at the Cleveland Clinic where I had open heart surgery completed to remove the excessive thickness of the septal wall within my heart. Too soon to tell you it was an unqualified success, but I did manage to avoid having a pacing device installed.

If your friend is the kind of guy who loves to exchange war stories, shoot me a PM and I will forward you my info...

[westofyou]

If your friend is the kind of guy who loves to exchange war stories, shoot me a PM and I will forward you my info...

I'll let him know, the day he got cut I happened to be in Moab, he was the guy that got me into biking, I called him from on top of this mountain that he loves, knowing full well he'll probably never ride up it again. In fact the hardware he has in his chest is the same as that kid had who died in Moab last fall, it essentially got recalled and he has to ponder getting cut to find out if his is defective.

The unit is used to shock his heart into regular mode when it occasionally races. His family heart history is bad, this was just a 1 in a million shot on top of that.

[Blimpie]

I'll let him know, the day he got cut I happened to be in Moab, he was the guy that got me into biking, I called him from on top of this mountain that he loves, knowing full well he'll probably never ride up it again. In fact the hardware he has in his chest is the same as that kid had who died in Moab last fall, it essentially got recalled and he has to ponder getting cut to find out if his is defective.

The unit is used to shock his heart into regular mode when it occasionally races. His family heart history is bad, this was just a 1 in a million shot on top of that.

Sounds like a Medtronic brand ICD. They are in some pretty hot water now within the electrocadiac professional community because of their quality control. There are even talks of a widescale class-action suit due to prior knowledge of the shortcomings of their pacing devices.

Tell your friend that whichever surgeon implanted his device should have the paperwork--and more importantly--the serial number of his ICD. That should save him from having to have an invasive procedure done just to determine whether or not his device is being recalled.

There is another message board that has been invaluable to me over the last few years that your friend may or may not be familiar with. There is quite a bit of information on there about the latest regarding ICDs.

The site link is:

http://www.4hcm.org

See ya-

Blimpie