NEWSElvis Presley's Stepbrother Claims Doctors 'Killed Him' by Overprescribing Medications: 'Who Needs 10,000 Pills?'
Elvis Presley passed away in 1977.
Elvis Presley tragically passed away on August 16, 1977, at 42 years old.
His cause of death was ruled to be cardiac arrhythmia potentially caused by an interaction between an antihistamine, codeine, Demerol, Valium and several other drugs — but his stepbrother, David Stanley, blames the doctors who prescribed him the shocking dosage of medications.
Elvis Presley's cause of death was a heart attack.
"Dr. Nick [George Nichopoulos] gave him over 10,000 pills in the last eight months of his life," Stanley told a news outlet. "Without Dr. Nick, Elvis would have died in 21st Century, Nick would be in prison and would have died in prison."
"The doctors killed him," he added. "Who needs 10,000 pills? Who needs 33 sleeping pills to go to sleep at night? Who needs cocaine and amphetamine to wake up every day? And they say he had health problems…my friend, you take as much dope as that, you’re going to have some health problems."
Elvis Presley's stepbrother David Stanley blamed his doctor for overprescribing him medications.
Stanley also said that he's been criticized by fans for how passionately he speaks about the circumstances behind his brother's passing.
"When I talk about Elvis, I talk about his medications costing him his life. I'm very adamant about it, very vocal about it," he explained. "Fans go, ‘How could you talk that way about Elvis?’"
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"Be there for five years, the last years of his life, watch him go from King to 255 pounds — those were his words — totally wrecked, and do the job to keep him there alive as long as he can," he continued. "Whether it be too much food, whether imbalance from his water because of the medications, go through all of that, then come to me and tell me how much you love Elvis."
David is the son of Vernon Presley and Dee Stanley, prior to Vernon's marriage to Elvis' mother, Gladys.
Elvis Presley was the son of Vernon and Gladys Presley.
As OK! previously reported, author Greg McDonald shed light on Elvis' addiction battle in his book Elvis and the Colonel: An Insider's Look at the Most Legendary Partnership in Show Business.
"There were no Betty Ford Centers," one excerpt read. "There were no rehabs that were respectable to go to if you were a big star like Elvis. They just didn’t exist. And when Elvis was in Graceland, he’d hide for weeks at a time. It wasn’t healthy. People would say, ‘You’ve got to get him out of the house and get him on the road, so he’ll quit this.'"
The Mirror reported Stanley's comments regarding Presley's death.
