CARROLLTON, Ga., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The Georgia doctor who gave steroids to wrestler Chris Benoit before his murder-suicide also gave drugs to another wrestler who later died, a report says.
Dr. Phil Astin III of Carrollton, who prescribed steroids to Benoit before his death in June, also prescribed potentially addictive pain killers and muscle relaxers to professional wrestler Michael Durham -- stage name "Johnny Grunge" -- before his Feb. 16, 2006, death from blockage of vessels supplying blood to the heart, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.
Astin, who has been indicted on federal charges of overprescribing to two patients, issued four prescriptions for painkillers to Durham within a 25-day period in March 2005, pharmacy records show, the newspaper said -- among the prescriptions were two for 60 350-milligram Soma pills, a potent muscle relaxer, over the course of four days.
Toxic levels of Soma and the painkiller hydrocodone were cited as contributing factors in Durham's death in the autopsy report.
Astin issued 32 of the 36 prescriptions Durham received during the last year of his life, the newspaper said.
