In May of 2017, Chris Cornell was found in his hotel room after a gig in Detroit, where he hung himself, which was quickly ruled a suicide. Cornell's wife, Vicky rejected the ruling by law enforcement. She blamed the death on taking too much anti-anxiety medication, especially after her final conversation with Chris, where she said he didn't sound like himself, and sounded like he did when he was addicted to Oxycontin.
She revealed earlier this year to Good Morning America that his relapse was caused due to a shoulder injury, and the resulting prescription that he attained to treat the pain ultimately led to his death:
“Approximately a year before he died, he was prescribed a benzodiazepine to help him sleep,” said Vicky. “He had torn his shoulder … the pain in the shoulder was waking him up at night and it was keeping him up.” She started seeing signs of addiction creep up again, noting a nine-day period he took 33 pills.
According to TMZ, Vicky is now suing Dr. Robert Koblin for malpractice:
Vicky Cornell is suing Dr. Robert Koblin for malpractice, claiming the doctor prescribed 940 doses of the anti-anxiety drug Lorazepam (aka Ativan) as well as Oxycodone during the last 20 months of his life, without even examining the Soundgarden singer, performing lab studies … anything to determine if Chris was in danger.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Chris was a known "addiction-prone individual," yet the doctor took no steps to protect him. The suit claims, in 2004, Chris' therapist for his substance abuse referred him to Dr. Koblin, so the doctor well knew Chris was an addict.
The report states that Dr. Koblin never made Chris aware of the dangers of suicide or the long-term effects of the drug use. It also claims that Koblin permitted "non-physician staff" to write hundreds of prescriptions for Lorazepam to Chris without providing any sort of monitoring.
The amount of damages the Cornell estate is seeking was not made clear.
