Lamar Odom took cocaine and 10 doses of a Viagra-like medication, sheriff says
Reporting from Crystal, Nev. — Lamar Odom had taken cocaine and 10 doses of a Viagra-like medication in the days before he lost consciousness at a Las Vegas-area brothel, a Nevada sheriff said Wednesday.
In a 911 call Tuesday afternoon from the Love Ranch Vegas in Crystal, Nev., brothel workers said Odom had used cocaine Saturday but were unsure whether he had continued to do so, according to a televised news conference.
“All I know is that he’s close to not breathing,” Mitzy Jones told a 911 dispatcher in two calls.
“They need to hurry, please, because he’s got blood coming out of his nose, white stuff coming out of his mouth,” Jones, a brothel manager, said on the second call. “We can’t get him to wake up. He’s, like, almost not breathing.”
Richard Hunter also called 911, telling dispatchers that Odom had a pinkish-red fluid and “a bunch of white stuff” coming out of his nose, but appeared to be breathing regularly. “He’s in a deep sleep for sure,” said Hunter, who is a spokesman for the ranch, owned by Dennis Hof.
“He’s over on his side, snoring, and he’s made a few sounds,” Hunter said. “I’m trying to speak to him, and I’m kind of hearing a few whimpers.”
Odom had taken about 10 1,875-milligram doses of a packaged supplement called Reload 72-Hour Strong Sexual Performance Enhancer for Men over three days, Hunter said.
Nye County sheriff’s officials said that Odom apparently got the sexual performance drug from the brothel and that they had obtained a warrant to gather a blood sample from Odom but had not tested it yet.
“We’re only after the truth here,” said Sheriff Sharon Wehrly when asked about possible criminal charges related to the Odom incident.
She declined to say whether drugs or drug paraphernalia had been discovered at the brothel, adding that the investigation was continuing. “We’re going to be looking at the entire situation, how he came to be” at the brothel.
Hunter said Odom had never visited the brothel before. Drugs are not allowed, he said, but customers are not searched, so it is “conceivable” that Odom had used drugs there. Odom told a prostitute he had used “a small amount” of cocaine before he arrived Saturday, Hunter said. He described Odom as “shy, reserved, polite, quiet.”
Odom had been with two women Monday night but told them he wanted to be alone, Hunter said. They found him unresponsive about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, Hof said in a statement.
Odom’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Khloe Kardashian, former teammates and friends gathered at a Las Vegas hospital Wednesday where the former Lakers player was being treated.
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For the record
2 p.m., Oct. 14: An earlier version of this story said Khloe Kardashian is Lamar Odom’s ex-wife. Their divorce has not yet been finalized.
8:20 p.m., Oct. 14: An earlier version of this story said paramedics found Odom bleeding from his nose and mouth. Actually, the sheriff was paraphrasing the 911 calls.
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Hospital officials have yet to give an official condition for the 35-year-old basketball player who carved out a championship role on the Lakers, married Kardashian and became a star in their reality TV show that riveted the attention of cable viewers and the tabloid media.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, visited the stricken athlete Wednesday and told reporters that Odom appeared to be improving after he was unresponsive Tuesday.
“Apparently from what the doctor said, he was much better off today than yesterday,” Jackson told reporters as he left the hospital, the Associated Press reported.
From the Archives: ‘Death always seems to be around me,’ Odom says
Kardashian and some childhood friends were by his side, Jackson said.
“He’s got tubes in him now, but we felt inspired by his presence,” Jackson said. “We’re just holding hands and hoping he can bounce back.”
There was an immediate outpouring of support for Odom from current and former players. Sources with the Lakers who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation confirmed that Kobe Bryant and Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak visited Odom in the hospital Tuesday night. The Lakers happened to be playing the Sacramento Kings in an exhibition game in Las Vegas.
A spokeswoman for the Nye County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that an ambulance took Odom from Love Ranch to a local hospital, and then to a Las Vegas hospital after he could not be airlifted because of his 6-foot-10 height.
From the Archives: Odom comes to Clippers with an eventful past
Odom started his career with the Clippers and played for the Lakers for seven seasons, where he was a franchise favorite. He was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 after the NBA commissioner blocked a deal that would have sent him to New Orleans, and went back to the Clippers in 2012, where his career effectively ended the next year.
Odom was no longer just an NBA player when he married reality TV star Kardashian in 2009. He appeared on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” and the couple eventually starred in their own show, “Khloe & Lamar,” which ran for two years and allowed Odom’s popularity to seep into the mainstream. Odom and Kardashian filed for divorce in 2013.
Hof, the brothel owner, told The Times that Odom told him on Saturday that he wanted to visit the Love Ranch and that he stayed in Hof’s home, attached to the brothel.
The brothel, near the Last Chance mountain range, is a compound of one-story stucco buildings, landscaped with palm trees and statues of naked women.
Hof described it as a nice getaway from the media for people to “be who they want to be as long as they want to be there.”
Odom “wanted to get away from everybody, wanted to have fun,” Hof, who was in northern Nevada over the weekend, said Tuesday.
Hunter, the brothel spokesman, said Wednesday that he doesn’t know why Odom decided to come, but added that Hof has celebrity friends.
A ranch worker picked up Odom in Las Vegas and drove him to the brothel, Hunter said.
Odom was apparently in a “somber” mood Sunday, Hof said his employees told him.
“Other than that, [he was in] good spirits, wanted to have a good time,” Hof said.
Hof’s employees reported that Odom had ordered a bottle of cognac over the weekend and on Tuesday a third of the bottle was left, Hof said.
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Hof also said Odom had ingested “an enormous amount of herbal viagra.”
An employee from Odom’s management company was sent to pick up Odom’s backpack and cellphone, Hof said.
Odom has struggled with episodes of substance use. He violated the NBA’s anti-drug program twice in eight months earlier in his career, admitting in 2001 during his first stint with the Clippers that he had used marijuana. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in 2013 amid reports of drug abuse as his marriage with Kardashian appeared to be in trouble.
Odom’s life has taken multiple tragic turns. His mother, Cathy Mercer, died of colon cancer when he was 12. His grandmother Mildred Mercer, who raised him, died in 2003. His son Jayden, not quite 7 months old, died of sudden infant death syndrome in his crib in 2006. After a series of personal tragedies in 2011, he told The Times, “Death always seems to be around me.”
Panzar reported from Crystal, Nev.; Pearce and Muskal reported from Los Angeles.
Times staff writers Mike Bresnahan, Christine Mai-Duc and Christie D’Zurilla contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
MORE ON LAMAR ODOM:
Legal brothels in Nevada, even with clients like Lamar Odom, are on the wane
The scene at the Nevada brothel where Lamar Odom was found unconscious
The FDA issued 20 warnings on ‘herbal Viagra,’ reportedly taken by Lamar Odom
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