update: Tammy Wynette

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

Wynette Died Naturally, Autopsy Says

The autopsy on country singing legend Tammy Wynette that was supposed to
answer everything didn't. 

Nashville Medical Examiner Bruce Levy, performing the examination on the
exhumed singer's embalmed body, reports that Wynette died at age 55 from
heart failure, the result of cardiac damage caused by repeated blood
clots--an determination consistent with the original death certificate. 

What the report fails to answer is whether it was the negligent
prescription of drugs by Wynette's physician that caused these blood
clots, as a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by four of the "Stand
By Your Man" singer's daughters claims. 

"My belief is that the heart failure happened probably through a
combination of natural disease and maybe or maybe not contributed to by
the drugs," Levy told reporters. "There's no way to be able to determine
that for sure." 

Traces of sedatives were found, but Levy said it's impossible to determine
their significance because the autopsy was performed more than a year
after Wynette's April 1997 death. 

Such a determination is crucial to the daughters' litigation against
Pittsburgh-based physician Wallis Marsh, whose alleged improper care of
their mother led to her death, the siblings say. 

Levy added that, if called upon to testify in a trial, he would say
Wynette died of natural causes. 

In any event, the plaintiffs are putting a positive spin on the report,
with their attorney, Ed Yarbrough, telling Associated Press, "It shows
that a blood clot was not the operative cause of death. And it now appears
Dr. Levy is saying there is some sort of heart problem that should have
been addressed by Dr. Marsh." 

Marsh hasn't publicly commented on the autopsy yet. 

Wynette's manager and fifth husband, George Richey--who was originally
named in the suit, but was dropped from it several weeks ago--is
reportedly "elated" by the report's findings. 

"In his opinion, it show she died of natural causes as he's said all
along," a spokesperson for Richey told AP. 

The daughters made headlines earlier this year when they requested
Tennessee medical officials exhume their mother, who had 20 No. 1 singles
throughout her legendary career, but was troubled in her later years by
various drug and health problems. 

Richey originally disputed the body's removal, and Levy's office initially
declined the request. But when Richey finally relented last month, so did
the medical examiner, and Wynette's body was removed from its Nashville
mausoleum resting place in April. 



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