HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith was not breathing when an Indian tribe’s police department requested help from paramedics, according to a tape released yesterday.
In the 31-second call, the Seminole tribal police department asked Hollywood paramedics for help in assisting Mrs. Smith, who was found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on the tribe’s reservation.
“She’s not breathing, and she’s not responsive. She’s, um, actually Anna Nicole Smith,” the woman from the Seminole police is heard to say while asking for help in Room 607.
“Oh, OK,” a woman at the Hollywood Police Department responded.
Mrs. Smith, a former Playboy playmate, model and reality TV character, was pronounced dead about an hour later at a hospital. The tape of the conversation was released by the Hollywood Police Department. The tape of the original 911 call to the tribal police was not released.
Mrs. Smith’s partner, Howard K. Stern, wasn’t with her when she died, but he had been there that morning and knew she was very sick, his sister, Bonnie Stern, said.
Mrs. Smith was running a fever of 105 degrees, and a nurse was “icing her down” earlier that day, she said.
“When he left her, she was sleeping,” she said.
Mr. Stern had been gone about two hours when news reached him that Mrs. Smith had died, his sister said.
Miss Stern, who recently traveled from her Beverly Hills home to the Bahamas to comfort her brother, said that he had tried to get Mrs. Smith to visit a doctor but that Mrs. Smith had refused because she was afraid it would draw publicity.
“They had plans to get a yacht and to buy an engagement ring. They were going to get married Feb. 27. It was going to be a real marriage,” she said.
Asked what she thought caused Mrs. Smith’s death, Miss Stern said: “Her immunity was so low. She was so depressed. She kept getting sick, and her body just probably broke down.”
Friends said Mrs. Smith had never recovered from the loss of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died in the Bahamas in September while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister at a hospital. She also had spent a decade in court fighting over the estate of her late husband, 90-year-old Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.
Alex Goen, founder and chief executive officer of TrimSpa, knew Mrs. Smith well from her work as a company spokeswoman and said she suffered from social anxiety, even after years in the spotlight.
“She was clearly incredibly misunderstood,” Mr. Goen told “The Early Show” on CBS yesterday.
Mrs. Smith had gone through drug rehabilitation, and her mother, Vergie Arthur, has blamed drugs for her daughter’s death.
Mrs. Smith had met Mr. Stern in 1996 when she was referred to his law firm, Miss Stern said.
“He started doing her legal work, and then he became her confidant. They became best friends, and then he fell in love with her,” she said.
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