Soldier training at Fort Irwin died due to prescription drug combination

A Fort Carson, Colo., soldier training at Fort Irwin died due to a deadly combination of prescription drugs she was taking for pain.

An autopsy report from the coroner division of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department found that May death of Spc. Emily T. Ort, 24, of Willis, Texas, was accidental and caused by toxic levels of the multiple prescription drugs present in her body.

“There is no evidence of suicide. ... The decedent did not have a history of chronic drug abuse,” the autopsy report stated.

Ort was found unresponsive in her sleeping bag at Fort Irwin on the morning of May 3. She was rushed to Weed Army Community Hospital where she was pronounced dead. The autopsy was conducted on May 5, but the report was recently released to the Desert Dispatch.

According to the report, the pain medications of acetaminophen, morphine, hydrocodone and gabapentin and the anti-anxiety drugs of Valium and oxazepam were found in Ort’s blood.

The report stated that Ort was taking Vicodin and Valium for injuries from a Dec. 2007 traffic collision. Ort’s mother stated in the report that her daughter told her the night before her death that her medication had been stolen and her doctor had given her morphine and a muscle relaxer called Flexeril as replacements.

It is unknown whether the replacement drugs caused the toxicity in Ort’s blood. The investigating officers at Fort Irwin and the pathologist at the coroner’s division could not be reached for comment.

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(760) 256-4121 or aaron_aupperlee@link.freedom.com