While an autopsy, undertaken the same day Presley died, was still in progress, Memphis
medical examiner Jerry Francisco announced that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest. Asked if drugs were involved, he declared that "drugs played no role in Presley's death".[SUP]
[302][/SUP] In fact, "drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. The pathologists conducting the autopsy thought it possible, for instance, that he had suffered "anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist, to which he was known to have had a mild allergy". A pair of lab reports filed two months later strongly suggested that
polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity".[SUP]
[303][/SUP] In 1979, forensic pathologist
Cyril Wecht conducted a review of the reports and concluded that a combination of central nervous system depressants had resulted in Presley's accidental death.[SUP]
[302][/SUP] Forensic historian and pathologist
Michael Baden viewed the situation as complicated: "Elvis had had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."[SUP]
[304][/SUP]
The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Francisco had offered a cause of death before the autopsy was complete; claimed the underlying ailment was
cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that can be determined only in someone who is still alive; and denied drugs played any part in Presley's death before the toxicology results were known.[SUP]
[302][/SUP] Allegations of a cover-up were widespread.[SUP]
[304][/SUP] While a 1981 trial of Presley's main physician,
George Nichopoulos, exonerated him of criminal liability for his death, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had [prescribed] more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics: all in Elvis' name."
