RIP Greg Giraldo

A slight hijack, but apparently he OD’d a few days ago and just passed away today—I thought with narcotics, (which I thought I read that he had taken) if you took an OD, you either died right away (from respiratory failure or something similar) or if help arrived in time, they pumped you full of a narcotic antagonist and you came to right away (almost instantly, in fact), and from what I have heard, usually not much the worse for the experience.

How did he OD, then linger in a hospital for 3 or 4 days until finally dying? This seems different than any overdose that I have ever heard of.

Any medical Dopers know what may have happened?

I will repeat my favorite Greg Giraldo joke:

I want an answer to this question myself – society has clearly got its priorities wrong.

I start every VSM session with a Red Bull, Extenze, Ritalin, and a viagra, and a line of coke then I snort some vicodin, pop a xanax, and snort some ambien to get to sleep … I mean, isn’t that the pinnacle of New Millenium druaboose.

I wonder if acetaminophen wasn’t involved, and he destroyed his liver.
Some painkillers combine acetaminophen with a more powerful drug, and I’m starting to believe that’s a very bad idea, given how easy it is for acetaminophen to kill your liver, and how addicted ppl act.

I’ve always been told that that’s the point. The idea is that Vicodin is pretty much given out like candy (seriously-- go tell your doctor you have a hangnail if you don’t believe me), so they add the acetaminophen so people know not to abuse it. Take with a grain of salt, of course, but I have heard this from people in the medical field.

All I know is that I’m tired of my family dying, fuckin’ up, and being incarcerated for lifetime sentences from the traces and tracks of opiates.

It killed my Uncle with morphine, as he was dying of cancer.

Wow, what a remarkably bad idea. The single highest cause of liver failure is acetaminophen. I wonder if even half the ppl who would take it for ‘a good time’ would have a clue that it could cause liver damage. I don’t think that folks who are of that mind are necessarily the best educated or most responsible ppl, nor are they likely to be thinking clearly at the time. Why don’t they put something in there to give them the shits, or make them vomit if they take too much of it. “Nah, let’s fix it so that they could kill themselves if they take too much. I’m sure they’re all educated, responsible ppl.” Genius.

I believe the idea of those types of additions are not so you know it’s bad for you, but so that you’ll feel bad if you take too much. I’ll admit that acetaminophen is a bad choice, though, as I know people who have taken more than the maximum dose for quite a long time. Heck, I had an aunt who died from it.

Oddly, I can still find no mention of Giraldo’s death on CNN.com, at least in any of the links on the main page. Plenty of space to mention Snooki’s new book, and the non-news that there’s no progress in Korea talks, however.

He may not have had Dane-Cook-level exposure, but he was well-known in comedy circles and just appeared on a primetime network show. So far, about the only coverage I’ve seen is on TMZ. Did Giraldo make fun of CNN and they’re holding a grudge?

Jon Stewart did what seemed a very heart-felt though brief eulogy for him at the end of last night’s Daily Show.

There is a story about his death listed on CNN’s “Entertainment” page. Apparently they find his death a form of entertainment.

He wasn’t my favorite, but he was very good on the Hasselhoff roast and some of the others. Even before the overdose it seemed like he was having some problems (I remember some jokes about it during the roasts) and it’s too bad he died young.

I did, if you want to search for it.

Let me add my condolences to Greg Giraldo, who was great at the Friar’s Club Roasts. In classic roast form, Gilbert Gottfried asked if cremating Giraldo would count as “Roasting Greg Giraldo”?

Two degrees of dead: I have a relative who is “in the business” and knew Greg. She actually knew he was in the hospital and heard he was doing fine. Then dead. Not sure if it was bad medical treatment or they were misinformed. Either way, friends and co-workers are not happy about what happened.