New findings in the death of comedian Bob Saget have raised questions about how the Full House star suffered such a significant blow to the head in his Orlando hotel room.
An autopsy report released on Friday (US time) showed that Saget, 65, had fractured several places in his skull, as well as the bones in his eye socket, and had bleeding across both sides of his brain.
The report, made by Dr Joshua Stephany, attributed Saget's extensive injuries to a fall. In a statement made by the actor's family about his cause of death, they said authorities had determined he had somehow hit his head, "thought nothing of it and went to sleep".
The New York Times spoke to several medical experts about the findings, some of whom felt the story didn't quite add up.
Dr Jeffery Bazarian, an emergency physician and concussion expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said it was possible that if Saget had struck his head hard enough and in the wrong place that fractures could extend throughout his skull - particularly if he couldn't break his fall.
However, the notion that Saget could shrug off such an injury didn't quite add up.
"I doubt he was lucid," Bazarian said. "And I doubt he thought, 'I'm just going to sleep this off'."
Some neurosurgeons interviewed by the New York Times said it would be unusual for a typical fall to cause Saget's injuries, which they felt fit more closely with someone who had fallen from a considerable height or been thrown from a car in an accident.
"This is significant trauma," said Dr Gavin Britz, the chair in neurosurgery at Houston Methodist.
"This is something I find with someone with a baseball bat to the head, or who has fallen from 20 or 30 feet."
Britz also noted that fracturing the "orbit" - or socket - of the eye would cause "significant pain".
The autopsy found no other injuries to Saget's body, which would be expected had he taken a large fall. The death was ruled accidental, and local authorities ruled out foul play early on in their investigations.
No illegal drugs were found in Saget's system, but there was evidence of a benzodiazepine used to treat panic attacks and an antidepressant. The autopsy did not link either of those substances with the America's Funniest Home Videos host's death, but some doctors said they could make the user sleepy and contribute to a fall.
The father-of-three also still had signs of COVID-19 in his system, having revealed he contracted the virus during an appearance on a podcast in January. Saget didn't say when he caught coronavirus, or what variant, but the report did not suggest it had contributed to his death.
