Goldie;close friends say drug rumour "unfounded" and "evil" as doctor explains possible death

Did Goldie do drugs? And was her death a result of an overdose?

Did she traffic in controlled substances, those early days before she settled with music? The answer is YES and NO, depending on who you ask.

While many speculate that the late entertainer traded in hard drugs many years back, and favoured smoking stuff, those close to her told NET over the weekend that nothing could be further from the truth.

A bold PM News article alleged she died of drugs overdose, but several friends who spoke with us say the drug rumours are ‘unfounded ‘and evil.

‘She didn’t smoke, even though she had close friends who did‘, one associate who worked with her for years told us.

And her husband Andrew has told all those peddling the rumours to back off…

Meanwhile, a Lagos-based medical doctor and Nigerian Entertainment Today analyst is giving a medical explanation, about possible cause of death. Read below

The sudden death of Goldie came as a surprise to many people. She was said to have developed severe headache at home after arriving Nigeria after a long flight and was rushed to the hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. So what could have led to her sudden death?
Many reports say she died of pulmonary embolism from a deep venous thrombosis. This is because she developed symptoms shortly after arriving from a long flight. Deep Vein thrombosis is a condition in which a thrombus (a blood clot) forms in a vein. A thrombus can form in any vein in the body, however it is commoner in veins of the leg (especially in the calf) and pelvic (hip) region. A blood clot can form as a result of sluggish blood flow e.g. after a long period of immobility (long air travel immobility and prolonged bed rest of more than 4 days), injury to the blood vessel and hyper-coagulable states (conditions in which the blood clots easily). It can also occur in normal individuals with no apparent cause. Clots can also form from tumour cells, fat cells from a fracture, amniotic fluid and any foreign material from intravenous drug use. A major complication of a Deep vein thrombus is Pulmonary embolism. This is when clots within the vein is dislodged and enters the arteries that supply the lungs thus reducing perfusion to the lungs and ultimately to lung collapse and death. Symptoms of pulmonary embolism include central chest pain, cough, breathlessness, dizziness, fainting amongst others but it may also be silent with no symptoms.
Another possible cause is an intra-cerebral haemorrhage (bleeding into the brain). This is because reports say she complained of a severe headache which is typical of a Sub-arachnoid haemorrhage which can be fatal. Symptoms of a subarachnoid haemorrhage include a sudden severe headache, vomiting, seizures and coma. Some other causes of Sudden death include Arrhythmias (when the heart starts beating out of control), Acute myocardial infarction (due to inadequate blood supply the heart), hidden congenital heart defects.
Details of other symptoms that she might have had apart from the headache that can help unravel this mystery is not known.
We also don’t know how long she was alive for before they could get her to the hospital; even though she lived in Ikoyi and the hospital is in Victoria Island; there might have been some delay in getting to the hospital due to the valentine day traffic.
Perhaps if we had a functioning ambulance system with trained paramedics who could get access to her and administer advanced life support in a few seconds or minutes of developing symptoms; she might have survived.
Owing to the paucity of facts about her full medical history -whether she had risk factors for common causes of sudden death like a heart abnormality, hypertension, if she was on any pills etc, we can only make conjectures as to her real cause of death.
The true cause of her death can only be determined if an autopsy is performed.
May her gentle soul rest in peace!