David Gail’s Family Shares New Details About How He Died

Soap star David Gail, 58, died in January, and now his family is revealing new information about how he died.

Last month, Gail’s publicist announced that he passed away from complications of sudden cardiac arrest.

Now, Deadline reports that his official cause of death is “anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy following resuscitation from cardio pulmonary arrest due to drug intoxication.”

The site goes on to state that he died of brain and heart complications stemming from the use of amphetamines, cocaine, ethanol, and fentanyl.

His mother, Mary Painter, told the site in a statement, “It breaks my heart to learn that my son died this way. David became reliant on medicine many years ago, after multiple surgeries on his hands and wrists. He lived in enough pain to prevent him from working for almost a decade, with relief only achieved through full disability, physical therapy and pain medicine.”

She went on, “He struggled to stop taking pharmaceuticals and did before turning toward a more Eastern pain management including acupuncture and natural medicines. I can only assume that his former opioid dependence played a part in self-medicating from uncontrolled sources.”

Mary hopes David’s death “shines a light on the countless innocent victims of pharmaceutical addiction and the fentanyl epidemic,” and asked fans to, “Please keep David, and others battling pain or dependence, in your thoughts and prayers.”

Previously, People reported that Gail was found unresponsive in January and emergency personnel attempted CPR and defibrillation, but they were unsuccessful. He was then placed on life support for several days before his death.

He made his TV debut on a 1990 episode of “Growing Pains,” and had several guest spots on series in the ’90s, including “Murder, She Wrote” (1993) and “Beverly Hills, 90210” (eight appearances, 1991-1994).

Gail was a series regular on “Robin’s Hoods” (1994-1995) and “Savannah” (1996-1997), going on to appear over 200 times as Dr. Joe Scanlon on “Port Charles” from 1999-2000.