Following conflicting reports from the police and media outlets about T.O.P‘s current health status, the physician in charge of his treatment made a statement to press on June 7th at 4 p.m. KST.
We have included some of the highlights of his statement below:
“When T.O.P was admitted to the hospital, he had high blood pressure and a high heart rate….T.O.P’s body would only respond to very strong simulation and we can still say that he is unconscious. We believe his pills are from a class called benzodiazepines, which are meant to treat anxiety. We don’t know how many pills T.O.P ingested, but we know it was a lot.
Due to the medicine, his pupils would not respond like a normal person’s would… his blood carbon dioxide levels were high enough that he could have gone into cardiac arrest. T.O.P’s breathing is still not at normal levels and he will have to stay longer in the hospital for recovery. After his condition improves, we will discuss his situation with mental health doctors.
Based on our observations, it will take at least one week for T.O.P to recover. However, we will continue to monitor him in the meantime. The most important thing for T.O.P right now is that he needs psychiatric treatment. We do not see signs of any other drugs being used beyond the benzodiazepines.
We do not know who gave police the statement but yesterday his carbon dioxide level in the blood was extremely high and was at a very dangerous level. We continued to run tests on him and he did not significantly improve but the carbon dioxide level gradually started coming down so that we did not have to take drastic measures.
It is proper procedure to watch patients who suffer from side effects of Benzodiazepine at the ICU to make sure this does not happen. As far as we can tell, he has not gone into this state as of yet but he is still in a stage where a careful eye must be kept on him. This may have caused some confusion but we will release details in an official report.“
(Updated, June 7th) After the statement from the doctor, the press was free to ask questions of the medical team. One of the most asked questions was about T.O.P’s level of consciousness and whether there was any truth to the police statement that had been released before that claimed he was not unconscious and only sleeping heavily. The doctor verified that there was absolutely no basis to this at all and that when T.O.P was first brought in, they even considered incubating him because he was having such trouble breathing. Although his body had minor responsive reflects when shocked or pricked, his pupils would not respond normally and he was unresponsive personally.
Since then, he has improved to the point where he can open his eyes for some seconds if shocked severely, but he still cannot focus or keep his eyes open for very long. The doctor clarified that this is still enough to say that he is unconscious since there are different levels of unconsciousness, from a slight level, such as a drunk person passing out, to a more several level like a coma.
When asked whether the hospital had reported incorrectly to the police or the police had misconstrued what the hospital had shared with them, the doctor said he did not know who had presented “the false reports” to the police, but that it appeared to have been a misunderstanding due to the various stages of unconsciousness, but that they would include all the details in their report.
When the media continued to press the doctor about whether T.O.P was healthy besides being unconscious still, the doctor reminded them of what he had said about the side effects of benzodiazepine, the need to keep T.O.P in ICU as the medication can cause continued problems, the aforementioned problems with carbon dioxide in his blood, etc., and his obvious need for mental treatment.
He also went on to say that in most cases like this, a normal, young, healthy person usually takes about a week to recover from this type of overdose. He went on to state, however, that this also has to do with the mental state of a patient and their will to recover.
Stay tuned for more developing details.
We continue to hope and pray for T.O.P’s full recovery! Please join us in lifting him and his family up in prayer.
Media: YG Entertainment
Translation: @OH_mes