Model and reality television star Anna Nicole Smith refused medical treatment before her death, according to her partner Howard K Stern.
He made the comments after the results of the star's autopsy were announced yesterday, listing an accidental drug overdose as the cause of death.
Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper said that Smith had been suffering from a stomach flu, a 105-degree fever and an infection from repeated drug injections. Nine different drugs were also found in her blood.
Perper also said that the model might have survived if she had sought medical treatment. "If she would have gone to the hospital she wouldn't have died because she wouldn't have had the opportunity to take the excessive amount of chloral hydrate."
A statement from Stern said that Smith didn't want to go to hospital because "she did not want the media frenzy that follows her."
Speaking about yesterday's verdict, Stern's lawyer said: "Howard does not feel vindicated. He doesn't feel relief. He doesn't feel peace. He has lost the most important person in the world today and nothing can change that."
