Overview
- The examiner’s summary, released to media in mid-July, lists acute fentanyl toxicity as the cause of death for Blake Garrett, who died on Feb. 8 at age 33.
- The report states Garrett was residing in a sober living house in Tulsa at the time of his death and officially records the manner of death as accidental.
- Garrett’s mother has said he went to an emergency room a week before he died and was diagnosed with shingles, and she has suggested he may have unintentionally self-medicated after three years of sobriety.
- The medical report confirms the toxicology finding but does not establish how Garrett was exposed to fentanyl or the precise chain of events that led to the overdose.
- Garrett was best known as a child actor in the 2006 film How to Eat Fried Worms and his case underscores the broader public-health danger of fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that has become a leading cause of accidental overdose in the United States.