DALLAS (AP) — The lone U.S. Ebola patient is in critical condition, the Dallas hospital that has been treating him reported Saturday.
Candace White, a spokeswoman for Texas Health Resources, which operates Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas where Thomas Eric Duncan is being treated, issued a six-word news release saying, "Mr. Duncan is in critical condition."
She provided no further details about his condition and didn't immediately respond to emails and phone calls. The hospital previously said Duncan was being kept in isolation and that his condition was serious but stable.
Duncan traveled from disease-ravaged Liberia to Dallas last month before he began showing symptoms of the disease. He was treated and released from the hospital before returning two days later in an ambulance and being diagnosed with Ebola.
Health officials said Saturday that they are currently monitoring about 50 people for signs of the deadly disease who may have had contact with Duncan, including nine who are believed to be at a higher risk. Thus far none have shown symptoms. Among those being monitored are people who rode in the ambulance that transported Duncan back to the hospital before his diagnosis, said Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Friday, a hazardous-materials crew decontaminated the Dallas apartment where Duncan was staying when he got sick during his visit. The family who lived there was moved to a private home in a gated community, where they are being carefully monitored. The city had been having trouble finding a place that would take in Louise Troh, originally from Liberia, her 13-year-old son and two nephews.
"No one wants this family," said Sana Syed, a Dallas city spokeswoman.
The decontamination team collected bed sheets, towels and a mattress used by Duncan before he was hospitalized, as well as a suitcase and other personal items of his, officials said. The materials were sealed in industrial barrels that were to be stored in trucks until they can be hauled away for permanent disposal.
The first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S. has raised concerns about whether the disease that has killed 3,400 people in West Africa could spread in the U.S. Federal health officials say they are confident they can keep it in check.
The virus that causes Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids — blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — of an infected person who is showing symptoms.
Duncan arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill a few days later. After an initial visit to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, he was sent home, even though he told a nurse he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa. He returned to the hospital two days later, last Sunday, and has been kept in isolation ever since.
The hospital issued a news release late Friday saying that the doctor who initially treated and released did have access to Duncan's travel history, after all. It said Thursday that a flaw in the electronic health records systems led to separate physician and nursing workflows, and that Duncan's travel history hadn't been available to that doctor.
UPDATE 10-10-14
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Washington (AFP) - A Texas health care worker who treated an Ebola victim has tested positive for the deadly tropical fever, dealing a blow to the worldwide battle to stem the outbreak.
More than 4,000 people have died of Ebola in seven countries since the start of the year, according to the World Health Organization, and the epidemic appears to be outpacing efforts to fight it.
If preliminary test results are confirmed, the Texas patient would be the second person diagnosed with the illness and apparently the first to contract it on US soil, a day after US airports began screening travelers from epidemic-hit west Africa.
"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," said Dr David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
"We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."
The health care worker from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas reported a low-grade fever Friday night and was isolated and referred for testing, Texas health services said in a statement early Sunday. They did not further identify the worker nor detail how exposure to the virus occurred.
Health care workers wait for the arrival of a possible Ebola patient at the Texas Health Presbyteria …
The hospital had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died on Wednesday. Duncan was believed to have been infected with Ebola before he left Liberia and boarded a plane to visit family in Texas.
The latest Texas case underlines United Nations fears and growing concerns in the United States about Ebola, for which there is no vaccine or widely available treatment. "The virus is far ahead of us and every day the situation gets worse," the head of the United Nations' emergency Ebola mission, Anthony Banbury, told UN leaders after a tour of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the nations worst affected by the worst-ever outbreak of the disease. Passengers from the three countries arriving at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York will have their temperatures taken and be screened for signs of illness and answer questions about possible exposure, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. "Exit screening might not find every person with Ebola, however, it does not have to be perfect to help reduce the spread of Ebola," the CDC said in a statement. Four other major US airports are to start similar checks next week.
The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan is said to have died …
The CDC has predicted the number of cases globally could mount in a worst-case scenario to 1.4 million by January, unless strong measures are taken to contain the disease.
- Nurse's condition improves -
In Spain, attention remained focused on 44-year-old Teresa Romero, the Madrid nurse who became the first person to get infected with the haemorrhagic fever outside of Africa.
Her condition had "improved in the night. She is conscious and talks from time to time when she is in a good mood," a hospital source told AFP.
Romero's brother confirmed that his sister was improving.
People hold candles during a a prayer vigil and memorial at Wilshire Baptist Church for Thomas Eric …
"She no longer has a fever, it appears that while remaining seriously ill she's getting better and moving forward, She's still in a serious but stable condition and this gives us hope," Jose-Ramon Romero told private television channel La Sexta.
Teresa Romero is thought to have contracted the disease in late September in a Madrid hospital while caring for a Spanish missionary infected with Ebola in Africa who later died.
Fifteen other people, mostly hospital staff as well as Romero's husband, are under observation at the Carlos III hospital where Romero is being treated. The hospital said none of them were showing any symptoms.
- 'Not all Africa' -
The WHO reported 4,033 people have died from Ebola as of October 8 out of a total of 8,399 registered cases in seven countries.
Ebola causes fever, diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases internal and external bleeding. It is spread by contact and the exchange of bodily fluids.
The sharp rise in deaths came as the UN said aid pledges to fight the epidemic have fallen well short of the $1 billion (800 million euros) needed.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde pleaded on Saturday for the world to remember that not all of Africa had been hit with Ebola.
With Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia already seeing their economies crumble because of the disease, Lagarde emphasized: "We should be very careful not to terrify the planet in respect of the whole of Africa."
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Maine owner of slain dog says justice hasn’t been done
The resignation of the Louisiana police officer who shot his pet ‘was half the battle,’ the man says.
The Maine man whose dog was shot and killed by a Louisiana police
officer says he’s pleased the officer resigned this week, but he said
justice still has not been done.
click image to enlarge
A traveling musician from Portland
says a police officer killed his dog Arzy in a Louisiana newspaper’s
parking lot April 28. The officer has resigned.
The resignation of Sulphur, Louisiana, police Officer Brian
Thierbach “was half the battle,” said Brandon Carpenter, 28, who is
originally from Portland. “There was no reason for him to do what he
did.”
Carpenter, an occasional musician, and a friend have been
traveling around the country for much of this year, largely by hopping
freight trains. They arrived in Sulphur in late April and got into the
back of an empty box truck to get out of the rain.
When someone
saw the pair and called police, Thierbach arrived and arrested Carpenter
and his traveling companion, Logan Laliberte, originally from Auburn,
for trespassing. After they were handcuffed, Carpenter said, Thierbach
went to search their belongings, which were next to where Carpenter’s
dog, Arzy, was leashed.
Thierbach claimed that Arzy nipped at his
foot and he shot the Newfoundland, lab and golden retriever mix.
However, an independent witness said the dog didn’t attack the officer.
The
Sulphur police chief said in a news release this week that an
investigation determined that Thierbach had violated department policies
on the use of force, personal conduct and behavior, but the officer
resigned from the force before disciplinary action was taken.
Calls to the Sulphur Police Department were not returned Friday.
Carpenter
said he saw Arzy’s body at a Louisiana funeral home Friday for the
first time since the April 28 incident, and he said his dog was shot
between the eyes. Arzy will be cremated this weekend, he said.
Carpenter
said he has a local attorney who has been pushing for a criminal
investigation of Thierbach by the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Carpenter said no one from that department has asked to interview him
yet and he hasn’t heard from any local officials or police about the
shooting.
The trespassing charges against Laliberte and him are still in place, he said.
Carpenter
has since rented an apartment in Louisiana and begins work as a roofer
Saturday. He said he intends to stay there to continue pushing for
criminal charges against Thierbach and to testify at the trial if the
former officer is charged.
Carpenter said he respects most police officers, but Thierbach “needs to feel the repercussions of his actions.”
First of all , Robin Williams you will be missed, I feel so sorry that im in my own depressive mode AND think of ending it my self, im just learning this year just last month, people with money have problems too, we love you, may you now get the rest you deserve!! R.I.P
The Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams died Monday in California. He was 63.
"At this time, the Sheriff's Office Coroner Division suspects the death
to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must
be completed before a final determination is made," the Marin County
Coroner said in a statement. "A forensic examination is currently
scheduled for August 12, 2014 with subsequent toxicology testing to be
conducted."
"Robin Williams passed away this morning," the actor's rep Mara Buxbaum
added in a statement to ABC News. "He has been battling severe
depression of late. This is a tragic and sudden loss."
Robin Williams' Best Roles
Born in Chicago, Williams discovered his passion for acting in high
school, before moving to New York City to study at Juilliard alongside
Christopher Reeve.
A few years later, he also began doing stand-up comedy and working in
television, before landing a star-making guest role as alien Mork in
"Happy Days." In 1978, he was given his own spin-off series, "Mork &
Mindy," for which he won a Golden Globe.
SLIDESHOW: Robin Williams' Best Roles
Robin Williams, in the Moment
Robin Williams Checks Into Rehab
Robin Williams Reprising His Role in 'Mrs. Doubtfire' Sequel
Around that time, Williams suffered a great loss: His friend, John
Belushi, died of a drug overdose in 1982, prompting Williams, who had
struggled with alcoholism and cocaine abuse, to quit, cold turkey.
(Williams also said that the birth of his son in 1983 made him rethink
things: "You realize, OK, now you have this responsibility, and [I]
dealt with it," he told Nightline in 2011.)
He would go on to make two trips to rehab, once in 2006, and again this
past July, which his rep told ABC News was "the opportunity to fine-tune
and focus on his continued commitment, of which he remains extremely
proud."
"It's [addiction] -- not caused by anything, it's just there," Williams
told "Good Morning America" in 2006. "It waits. It lays in wait for the
time when you think, 'It's fine now, I'm OK.' Then, the next thing you
know, it's not OK. Then you realize, 'Where am I? I didn't realize I was
in Cleveland.'"
Celebrities React to Death of Robin Williams on Twitter
Meanwhile, Williams discovered a passion for film in the '80s. With that
came a litany of awards, including a Golden Globe for his role in the
1988 film, "Good Morning, Vietnam," a Golden Globe for his 1993 film,
"Mrs. Doubtfire," and a Screen Actors Guild Award for 1996's, "The
Birdcage." In 1998, after three nominations, he won his first Oscar for
his role in "Good Will Hunting."
"This might be the one time I'm speechless!" he quipped while accepting the honor.
President Obama said in a statement on the actor's passing: "Robin
Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a
professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was
one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien – but he ended up
touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us
cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who
needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized
on our own streets."
Williams also had a rich personal life. In 1978, he married his first
wife, Valerie Velardi, with whom he had one son, Zachary, now 31. He and
Verlardi divorced in 1988, and the next year, he married Marsha Garces,
who had previously been a nanny to Zachary. He and Garces, from whom he
split in 2008, had two children, Zelda, now 25, and Cody, 23. Williams
married his third wife, graphic designer Susan Schenider, in 2011.
Recently, Williams had been hard at work. He starred in the CBS series,
"The Crazy Ones" and he recently finished filming several film projects,
including "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb." He also recently
celebrated a birthday and, in his last Instagram post, wished his
daughter a happy 25th.
"#tbt and Happy Birthday to Ms. Zelda Rae Williams!" he wrote. "Quarter
of a century old today but always my baby girl. Happy Birthday
@zeldawilliams Love you!"
Robin Williams: 'I was shameful, did stuff that caused disgust – that's hard to recover from'
His
new film, World's Greatest Dad, is a glorious return to form. But a
mournful Robin Williams would rather talk about his battle with drugs
and alcohol – and recovering from heart surgery
In the normal order of things, an interview with a Hollywood actor
observes the form of a transaction. The actor wants to promote their
film, and ideally talk about little else – least of all anything of a
personal nature. The newspaper is mildly interested in the new film, but
hopes they can be tempted to talk about other matters – best of all
their private life. Sometimes the agreement is explicit, but most of the
time it is mutually understood, and so the interview tends to proceed
rather like a polite dance, with each party manoeuvring in its own
interests. On this occasion, however, the convention appears to have
been turned on its head.
Robin Williams's new film, World's Greatest Dad,
is brilliant. Having starred in a lot of unspeakably sentimental dross
in recent years, here he is at last in something clever and thoughtful; a
dark, slightly weird comedy that touches on all sorts of interesting
themes that I'm hoping he'll talk about. Williams, however, has other
plans. It is almost impossible to get anything coherent out of him about
the film, or any of the issues it raises. He is vague, tangential and
at times more or less incomprehensible – until the conversation turns to
more personal matters, at which point he becomes lucid and forthcoming.
What Williams really wants to talk about, it turns out, is his relapse
into alcoholism, his rehab and his open-heart surgery.
Unfortunately, it takes me some time to cotton on to this, so I keep asking questions about World's Greatest Dad.
Williams plays Lance, a failed writer, failed teacher and single father
of perhaps the most irredeemably dislikable teenager ever to appear on
screen. His son Kyle is addicted to hardcore internet pornography and is
almost universally loathed – until he accidentally dies. His father
fakes a suicide note, and when it is leaked, the school magazine
reprints the letter, its poignancy prompting a posthumous revision of
everyone's former low opinion of the boy. Soon a juggernaut of confected
grief is roaring out of control.
Unable to resist the allure of
his new popularity, Lance proceeds to fake a whole journal, passing it
off as his son's and fuelling the insatiable hunger for loss. A bidding
war breaks out between publishing houses, the journal becomes a
bestselling book, and Lance winds up on a daytime TV show, like a
pseudo celebrity, peddling his mythical son's tragedy to the nation.
The
film is a devastatingly funny indictment of the modern grief industry,
but when I ask Williams if he thinks it's getting worse, he says mildly,
"Well, I think people want it. In a weird way, it's trying to keep hope
alive." So does he not share the film's judgment on mawkish
sentimentality? "Well, you just try and keep it in perspective; you have
to remember the best and the worst." It seems as if he's about to
engage with the question – "In America they really do mythologise people
when they die," he agrees – but then he veers off at a tangent, putting
on Ronald Reagan's voice but talking about the ex-president in the
third person: "Maybe he was kind of lovable, but you realised half way
through his administration he really didn't know where he was."
I wonder if Williams had experienced a little bit of the film's theme himself, when his great friend Christopher Reeve died. Was it hard, I ask, to see fans mourning Superman, when to Williams he was a real person, a real friend?
"He
was a friend," Williams says solemnly. "And also knowing him,
especially after the accident and everything he went through – it was a
weird thing." What was it like, I try again, to grieve privately for a
public figure? "Well, it's a whole different game," he says, but then
starts talking about the death of Reeve's wife a year later. "It happens
all the time, I know, but I know their kids, they're amazing, and to
see them go through so much loss in one year – that's tough."
I
ask about the media's role in the manufacturing of grief, but instead he
recalls a talkshow he saw where a man confessed to adultery before a
female studio audience. "Idiot. Why don't you just go bobbing for
piranha? These women are screaming 'You bastard!', but the idea of being
on TV overrode everything." He adopts a southern redneck accent: "'Ah'm
on TV, y'all.' You're a schmuck, why would you do that?" Then the
accent again: "Ah'm on tee-vee, ah'm gonna be fay-mous.' Yeah, for all
of five minutes, big time."
We're not making much headway on the
grief industry, so I try internet porn. Williams's three children have
grown up through the internet age, so I'm curious about his views on
its impact on adolescents. "It's just like – there's everything you
could ever think about online." But what does Williams actually think
about it; is it liberating and a good thing, or corrupting and a bad
thing? "It's an old thing," he shrugs. "Look at the walls of Pompeii.
That's what got the internet started." Then he starts talking rather
boringly about iPhones, and how it's now possible to do video-conference
calls on a mobile.
My worry beforehand had been that Williams
would be too wildly manic to make much sense. When he appeared on the
Jonathan Ross show earlier this summer, he'd been vintage Williams –
hyperactive to the point of deranged, ricocheting between voices,
riffing off his internal dialogues. Off-camera, however, he is a
different kettle of fish. His bearing is intensely Zen and almost
mournful, and when he's not putting on voices he speaks in a low,
tremulous baritone – as if on the verge of tears – that would work very
well if he were delivering a funeral eulogy. He seems gentle and kind –
even tender – but the overwhelming impression is one of sadness.
Even
the detours into dialogue feel more like a reflex than irrepressible
comic passion, and the freakish articulacy showcased in Good Morning Vietnam
has gone. Quite often when he opens his mouth a slur of unrelated words
come out, like a dozen different false starts tangled together, from
which an actual sentence eventually finds its way out. For example,
"So/Now/And then/Well/It/I – Sometimes I used to work just to work."
It's like trying to tune into a long-wave radio station.
I find
myself wondering if alcohol abuse might have something to do with it.
Williams used to be a big-drinking cocaine addict, but quit both before
the birth of his eldest son in 1983, and stayed sober for 20 years. On
location in Alaska in 2003, however, he started drinking again. He
brings this up himself, and the minute he does he becomes more engaged.
"I
was in a small town where it's not the edge of the world, but you can
see it from there, and then I thought: drinking. I just thought, hey,
maybe drinking will help. Because I felt alone and afraid. It was that
thing of working so much, and going fuck, maybe that will help. And it
was the worst thing in the world." What did he feel like when he had his
first drink? "You feel warm and kind of wonderful. And then the next
thing you know, it's a problem, and you're isolated."
Some have suggested it was Reeve's death
that turned him back to drink. "No," he says quietly, "it's more
selfish than that. It's just literally being afraid. And you think, oh,
this will ease the fear. And it doesn't." What was he afraid of?
"Everything. It's just a general all-round arggghhh. It's fearfulness
and anxiety."
He didn't take up cocaine again, because "I knew
that would kill me". I'd have thought it would be a case of in for a
penny – "In for a gram?" he smiles. "No. Cocaine – paranoid and
impotent, what fun. There was no bit of me thinking, ooh, let's go back
to that. Useless conversations until midnight, waking up at dawn feeling
like a vampire on a day pass. No."
It only took a week of
drinking before he knew he was in trouble, though. "For that first week
you lie to yourself, and tell yourself you can stop, and then your body
kicks back and says, no, stop later. And then it took about three years,
and finally you do stop."
It wasn't, he says, fun while it
lasted, but three years sounds like a long time not to be having fun.
"That's right. Most of the time you just realise you've started to do
embarrassing things." He recalls drinking at a charity auction hosted by
Sharon Stone at Cannes: "And I realised I was pretty baked, and I look
out and I see all of a sudden a wall of paparazzi. And I go, 'Oh well, I
guess it's out now'."
In the end it was a family intervention
that put him into residential rehab. I wonder if he was "Robin Williams"
in rehab, and he agrees. "Yeah, you start off initially riffing, and
kind of being real funny. But the weird thing is, how can you do a comic
turn without betraying the precepts of group therapy? Eventually you
shed it."
Williams still attends AA meetings at least once a week –
"Have to. It's good to go" – and I suspect this accounts for a fair bit
of his Zen solemnity. At times it verges on sentimental: he asks if I
have children, and when I tell him I have a baby son he nods gravely,
as if I've just shared. "Congrats. Good luck. It's a pretty wonderful
thing." But it may well be down to the open-heart surgery he underwent
early last year, when surgeons replaced his aortic valve with one from a
pig.
"Oh, God, you find yourself getting emotional. It breaks
through your barrier, you've literally cracked the armour. And you've
got no choice, it literally breaks you open. And you feel really
mortal." Does the intimation of mortality live with him still?
"Totally." Is it a blessing? "Totally."
He takes everything, he
says, more slowly now. His second marriage, to a film producer, ended in
2008 – largely because of his drinking, even though by then he was
sober. "You know, I was shameful, and you do stuff that causes disgust,
and that's hard to recover from. You can say, 'I forgive you' and all
that stuff, but it's not the same as recovering from it. It's not coming
back."
The couple had been together for 19 years, and have a son
and a daughter, both now grown up; he has another son from his first
marriage to an actress in the late 70s. Williams is now with a graphic
designer, whom he met shortly before his heart surgery, and they live
together in San Francisco. "But we're taking it slow. I don't know,
maybe some day we'll marry, but there's no rush. I just want to take it
easy now. This is good news. It's the whole thing of taking it slow.
And it's so much better."
Williams thinks he used to be a fairly
classic workaholic, but at 59 is now taking it slow professionally too.
"In one two-year period I made eight movies. At one point the joke was
that there's a movie out without you in it. You have this idea
that you'd better keep working otherwise people will forget. And that
was dangerous. And then you realise, no, actually if you take a break
people might be more interested in you. Now, after the heart surgery,
I'll take it slow."
Williams has been nothing if not prolific.
After first finding fame in the late 70s as a kooky space alien in the
sitcom Mork and Mindy, he became better known as a standup comedian, but
his astonishing performance in Good Morning Vietnam earned him an Oscar
nomination in 1988, with two more in the following five years, for Dead Poets' Society and The Fisher King. Mrs Doubtfire, in which he dragged up to play a nanny, brought wider mainstream success, and in 1998 Good Will Hunting
finally won him an Oscar. In recent years, however, he has made an
awful lot of what would politely be described as less critically
acclaimed films.
Some of them have been downright awful; schmaltzy
family comedies drenched in maudlin sentiment, such as the unwatchably
saccharine Patch Adams or, even worse, Old Dogs.
When I ask why he made them, he says: "Well, I've had a lot of people
tell me they watched Old Dogs with their kids and had a good time." It
didn't offend his sense of integrity? "No, it paid the bills. Sometimes
you have to make a movie to make money." He didn't mistake them, he
adds, for intelligent scripts: "You know what you're getting into,
totally. You know they're going to make it goofy. And that's OK."
Like
many people, I had always been confused by Williams's film choices. The
sharpness of his early standup just seemed so incompatible with the
sentimentality of his worst movies, and if, as Williams claims, Old Dogs
simply paid the bills, he must have one very high-maintenance
lifestyle. When I watched World's Greatest Dad
I just assumed it echoed his own sensibility more accurately than all
the other rubbish he has made. But actually, having met him, I'm not
sure it does. I don't know whether it was rehab or heart surgery, but he
seems to have arrived at a place where sentimentality can sit quite
easily.
I ask if he feels happier now, and he says softly, "I
think so. And not afraid to be unhappy. That's OK too. And then you can
be like, all is good. And that is the thing, that is the gift."
World's Greatest Dad is released on 24 September
San Rafael, Calif. — Investigators here said today Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams's
death was a suicide by hanging: He was found dead in his bedroom,
clothed, slightly suspended in a seated position with a leather belt
around his neck, with one end wedged between a closet door and door
frame.
At a press conference, Lt. Keith Boyd, assistant chief deputy coroner for Marin County, Calif., said he was cold to the touch and rigor mortis had already set in.
Williams
was found by his personal assistant, who broke in to his room Monday
morning when he failed to respond to knocks. She was distraught in the
911 call and indicated Williams' death was a suicide by hanging.
Williams'
wife last saw him at about 10:30 pm the night before; she left the
house Monday around 10:30 am thinking he was still asleep in his room.
Neighbor Sandy Kleinman said yesterday that she saw his wife go out with the dog for a walk "in the morning."
Boyd
said some superficial cuts were found on the inside of Williams' left
wrist, and a pocket knife was found nearby. It is being tested to
determine if residue on the knife is blood and if it is Williams' blood.
"The
preliminary, and I again say preliminary, result of the forensic
examination reveals supporting signs that Mr Williams life ended from
asphyxia due to hanging," Boyd said.
Boyd
would not say whether a suicide note was found. Nor would he discuss
medications; toxicology reports won't be available for several weeks, he
said. But he did say Williams had recently sought treatment for
depression.
Boyd said today's forensic examination, conducted by the Marin County Sheriff's Office
chief forensic pathologist, "did not reveal any injuries indicating
that Williams had been in a struggle or any altercation" prior to death.
The
body is no longer in the county's custody but Boyd would not discuss
funeral arrangements, saying they were up to the family. So far, the
family, including Williams' widow, has pleaded for privacy.
His
family has not released any information about a funeral but late Tuesday
asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to these charities: St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Challenged Athletes, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, Muhammad Ali Parkinson Foundation, and the USO.
That's going to be difficult given the worldwide interest in the story. Already, mourners are turning up on the quiet bayside street in Tiburon where Williams lived.
Such as fans Sabrina Hahnlein, 55, and her daughter Kathryn, 23, of San Diego, who found their way to his home to leave a bouquet of flowers and pay their respects. They loved Williams work so much they named their two dogs after his first big breakthrough: Mork and Mindy.
Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead at 63
Monday of an apparent suicide. In his four decades in Hollywood he left
an indelible mark on pop culture.
VPC
The star was
found dead at his home in Tiburon, Calif. Monday, leaving Hollywood and
the comedian's many fans in a state of shock. Williams, 63, was found
unconscious and not breathing at approximately noon local time, and was
pronounced dead shortly after.
Williams' daughter, Zelda, 25, who is shown as a baby in the final post on the actor's Instagram account, tweeted early Tuesday morning, "I love you. I miss you. I'll try to keep looking up."
His
wife, Susan Schneider, issued a brief statement on Monday: "This
morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one
of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly
heartbroken."
The shock from Williams' death continued to reverberate throughout the culture, even the world. Some fans reacted today with touching tributes.
Boston fans chalked tributes and the words that Williams spoke in Good Will Hunting around the bench where he and Matt Damon
filmed a scene for the movie, creating a singular memorial. Chalk
footprints of where Williams sat were drawn on the bench, right above
famous quotes from the movie, such as "Your move, chief."
At Los Angeles' Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard, the marquee read: "Robin Williams Rest In Peace Make God Laugh."
Many of Williams' co-stars and Hollywood contemporaries expressed their shock and grief, too, via statements and social media.
One constant theme: No matter his demons, Williams was a good guy — warm, sweet, generous, compassionate, humane.
Stage superstar Nathan Lane, who co-starred with Williams in the film The Birdcage, said Williams once made him laugh so hard he cried, and on Monday he cried again at the thought that he was gone.
"What
I will always remember about Robin, perhaps even more than his comic
genius, extraordinary talent and astounding intellect, was his huge
heart — his tremendous kindness, generosity, and compassion as an acting
partner, colleague, and fellow traveler in a difficult world," Lane
said in a statement.
On Monday, President Obama paid tribute. Today, Secretary of State John Kerry praised Williams' "extraordinary zest."
"Robin
wasn't just a huge creative genius, but a caring, involved citizen,"
Kerry said in a statement. "I'll always be grateful for his personal
friendship and his support for the causes that we both cared about
deeply."
Alan Alda, in a tribute published on TIME.com, called Williams a "Niagara of wit," adding that his death made him want to do something.
"I
hope it makes us all want to do something," Alda wrote."While the whole
country, and much of the world, feels this moment of sadness at his
death, can we turn the loss of this artist we loved so much into
something that pushes back against the ravages of despair?"
"I feel stunned and so sad about Robin," his Mrs. Doubtfire co-star Sally Field told Entertainment Tonight
in a statement. "I'm sad for the world of comedy. And so very sad for
his family. And I'm sad for Robin. He always lit up when he was able to
make people laugh, and he made them laugh his whole life long ...
tirelessly. He was one of a kind. There will not be another. Please God,
let him now rest in peace."
On the Today show Tuesday morning, Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton called Williams a "genius."
"His
gift ... was genius. Geniuses can do things we have to learn to do. ...
You can teach craft, you can teach technique. You can't teach genius.
He had genius."
AJ
Polis leaves a flower outside a home in Boulder, Colo., alongside a
placard and photo of the late actor Robin Williams on Aug. 11. Williams
played Mork from Ork in the television series "Mork & Mindy." (Photo: Brennan Linsley, AP)
Steve Martin tweeted, "I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul."
Sarah Michelle Gellar, who starred with Williams on CBS' The Crazy Ones, remembers her co-star as a friend who became family.
"My life is a better place because I knew Robin Williams," she told People.
"To my children he was Uncle Robin, to everyone he worked with, he was
the best boss anyone had ever known, and to me he was not just an
inspiration but he was the father I had always dreamed of having. There
are not enough adjectives to describe the light he was, to anyone that
ever had the pleasure to meet him. I will miss him every day, but I know
the memory of him will live on. And to his family, I thank them for
letting us know him and seeing the joy they brought him. Us crazy ones
love you."
Meryl Streep, interviewed by Matt Lauer on Today, called Williams a "generous soul."
"It's hard to imagine unstoppable energy stopped," she said.
The family of the late Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who was Williams' roommate at Juilliard
in the early 1970s, recalled that Williams helped Reeve cope after he
was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995. Reeve died in 2004.
"After
our father's accident, Robin's visit to his hospital room was the first
time that Dad truly laughed," the family said in a statement to People. "Dad later said, 'My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay.' "
Robin Williams
Actor
Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor, stand-up comedian, film producer, and screenwriter. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy, Williams went on to ... Wikipedia
Born: July 21, 1951, Chicago, IL
Died: August 11, 2014, Tiburon, CA
Children: Zelda Rae Williams, Cody Alan Williams, Zachary Pym Williams
Spouse: Susan Schneider (m. 2011–2014), Marsha Garces (m. 1989–2010), Valerie Velardi (m. 1978–1988)
Awards: Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, More
Thank you and GOD bless you everyday of your life, I know you will get GREAT Karma for helping my family if you want to donate a vehicle for a super tax write off CLICK HERE-
© AP Photo/LM Otero Hazardous material cleaners prepare to hang black plastic outside the apartment in Dallas, Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, where Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient who traveled from Liberia to Da… 
Family
First of all , Robin Williams you will be missed, I feel so sorry that im in my own depressive mode AND think of ending it my self, im just learning this year just last month, people with money have problems too, we love you, may you now get the rest you deserve!! R.I.P
