Presley Gerbers death at age 27 has renewed questions about overdose risk, withdrawal complications and the challenges of addiction recovery.
The son of model Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber died Sunday at a California rehabilitation facility, according to Los Angeles County Medical Examiners Office records.
Presley’s death was confirmed by his mothers representative to Fox News Digital, who shared a statement from the family: “The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time.”
While an official cause of death has not yet been confirmed, audio recordings obtained by People suggest that police received a 911 call Sunday morning reporting a at a facility in the 1000 block of Berkeley Street. A separate dispatch identified the response as a potential overdose.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiners Office later confirmed that an autopsy had been completed, but the cause of death remained undetermined pending further testing.
Gerber had spoken publicly over the years about his struggles with substance use and .
Nicholas Kardaris, Ph.D., CEO and chief clinical officer of the New York Center for Living in Manhattan and a clinical professor at Stony Brook Medicines School of Social Welfare, spoke with Fox News Digital about what should know about relapse, overdose risk and seeking help for a loved one.
As Gerbers official cause of death has not yet been released, Kardaris â who has not treated Presley Gerber and is not connected to the case â cautioned against drawing conclusions from the fact that he died at a rehabilitation facility.
Possible explanations could include an acute medical or cardiac event, an undiagnosed condition or a medication-related complication, he said.
People in residential treatment facilities may have complex , and some conditions may not be immediately apparent when someone enters a program.
“Younger people can sometimes die suddenly, and we dont know whether they had an underlying medical issue,” Kardaris said.
“Its not impossible to have a medication-related event, particularly if someone has an underlying ” he continued. “Certain medications can trigger a cardiac episode.”
Entering treatment does not necessarily mean that a persons issues have been resolved or that no danger exists, Kardaris emphasized.
“People are in rehab because theyre struggling with addiction. It doesnt mean theyre cured of their addiction,” he said.
While treatment facilities work to create a controlled environment, they cannot eliminate every risk associated with , withdrawal, relapse or medical complications, according to Kardaris.
“Facilities take great pains to make sure substances dont come in, but its not a perfect system.”
He stressed that this is a general observation about treatment settings and not an indication of what occurred in Gerbers case.
Another potential risk during rehab is withdrawal itself, which can range from uncomfortable to life-threatening depending on the and the persons level of physical dependence, according to Kardaris.
“People can die from withdrawal, but the substances that are most dangerous to withdraw [from] without proper medical supervision are benzodiazepines, such as Valium or Xanax, ,” he told Fox News Digital.
While opioid withdrawal can be extremely uncomfortable, it is generally not fatal by itself, the expert s
