Teena Marie May Have Died After Seizure

• Pre-Autopsy Reports Suggest Grand Mal Seizure May Have Led to Singer's Death

By KRISTINA FIORE, MedPage Today Staff Writer

R&B icon Teena Marie may have died from suffering a grand mal seizure, according to reports that are surfacing after the star was found dead in her Pasadena home the day after Christmas.
Sudden unexplained death in epilepsy, or SUDEP, is typically associated with these most intense seizures and likely results from problems with breathing or heart rhythm, said Dr. Jacqueline French of NYU Medical Center and the American Academy of Neurology.
Yet researchers still aren't certain about the exact mechanism by which it leads to death, and caution that it isn't very common among all patients with seizures.
“When seizures aren't controlled, there's a small risk of sudden unexplained death," French told MedPage Today. "But 99 percent of the time when people have a seizure, that doesn't occur."
There has been some speculation that the singer may have been treated for epilepsy. According to entertainment website TMZ.com, the Los Angeles County coroner's office found diazepam (Valium) in her home, which friends say she stopped taking due to side effects before switching to herbal remedies.
The website also reported that she has suffered other seizures, as well as another grand mal only a month ago. She allegedly had requested that someone always accompany her to bed in fear that she would have another.
Dr. Shlomo Shinnar of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y., said withdrawal from a benzodiazepine like Valium can trigger seizures, even in the general population. For an epileptic patient, he said, coming off seizure control medication certainly increases the risk of convulsions.
"If you have a seizure disorder and you stop taking your medications, then you increase your risk of seizure and that can happen the next day, two weeks later, or two months later," he told MedPage Today.
Last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, Shinnar and a colleague reported that patients diagnosed with epilepsy as children have higher rates of death than the general population. In fact, almost 10 percent of these deaths were sudden and unexplained -- even in patients who'd been in remission without medication for many years.
Source:ABC NEWS,

Christopher Dudus Coke Turned Over to U.S. Officials

• Accused Jamaican Drug Lord Arrived in New York Thursday Evening

By RICHARD ESPOSITO and MARK SCHONE

Christopher Coke, the accused drug lord captured by Jamaican police Tuesday, was escorted by U.S. federal agents off a plane in suburban Westchester County, New York, at about 7 p.m. after his extradition from Jamaica.
He is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on Friday.
Coke, also known as Dudus, who was wanted by the Southern District of New York on drug and weapons charges, was captured by Jamaican police on the outskirts of Kingston on Tuesday. He waived his right to judicial proceedings in Jamaica, according to a statement from the Justice Department, and was transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals service and the DEA.
U.S. Marshals, DEA agents and federal prosecutors had worked hand in hand with senior Jamaican military and police officials in an effort to effect Coke's surrender and extradition. His attorney had contacted U.S. authorities on Monday advising that Coke was considering turning himself in to the U.S. It was the first communication that U.S. authorities had had with Coke's attorney in several weeks.
"We are relieved that Coke's arrest and transfer to New York was not marked by the violence that had gripped the streets of Jamaica for so many days," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. "We look forward to presenting our case to a jury in a Manhattan courtroom and bringing Coke to justice."
Source: abcnews.com

U.S. Report: Jamaican Prime Minister Is 'Known Criminal Affiliate' Of Hunted Drug Lord

By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MARK SCHONE and LUIS MARTINEZ

As official reports surface of accused drug lord Christopher Coke's escape from his barricaded Kingston, Jamaica neighborhood, where Jamaican authorities have been attempting to arrest him for extradition to the U.S., ABC News has learned that a U.S. government report refers to Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding as a "criminal affiliate" of Coke.

Golding, who led resistance to Coke's extradition before public opinion forced him to reverse himself, is described in a document read to ABC News as a "known criminal affiliate" of Christopher "Dudus" Coke. According to official U.S. accounts, Golding's Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) was voted into power through "Coke's murderous and strong-arm tactics."
Recently, Golding and other senior Jamaican officials have been electronically intercepted talking to Coke inside his fortified redoubt, US authorities say.
The major police action to capture Coke began Monday morning. On Tuesday, U.S. authorities said they believed Coke had escaped through a ring of hundreds of cops and soldiers who had surrounded the West Kingston neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens. Jamaican and US authorities report that Coke may have slipped through police lines and escaped into one of two adjoining areas, either Denham Town or Jones Town.
source: abcnews.go.com