Pritikin Suicide Linked to Scalpel Provided by Nurse

Fitness crusader Nathan Pritikin committed suicide with a scalpel given to him by a nurse at Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y., where he was undergoing treatment for terminal leukemia, authorities disclosed Sunday.

The nurse, who was not identified, has been cleared of any wrongdoing, hospital officials said.

Albany authorities had originally said that the 69-year-old Pritikin, who devised a controversial low-cholesterol diet and strict regimen of physical exercise, slashed his forearms with a straight razor found on his bedside table.

Hospital spokesman Elmer Streeter said Sunday that the state health department was notified Feb. 19, the day of Pritikin’s death, that a scalpel had been found underneath his body and that it was taken as evidence by Albany police.

But neither the health department, which routinely investigates all unusual hospital deaths, nor the police informed the coroner’s office that the scalpel was the instrument Pritikin used to kill himself.

Was Under Investigation

“We have not said anything about the circumstances because it was under investigation,” Streeter said. “The coroner has the only legal right in a death of unusual circumstances to give out information. Yesterday, the coroner gave us the authority to talk about the circumstances.”

The nurse gave Pritikin the disposable scalpel after Pritikin asked for an Exacto knife “so he could cut out charts and graphs for a scrapbook he used in keeping track of his experimental method of treating leukemia,” said Richard Ridgeway, the hospital’s director of public relations.

The health department’s investigation of Pritikin’s death determined that the nurse did not act wrongly in giving Pritikin the scalpel, Ridgeway said.

“Giving a terminally ill patient a potentially lethal weapon is not a common practice, but there is no specific policy regarding that at the hospital,” Ridgeway added. “I think people used good judgment in making this decision. His wife was with him at the time and she approved of his request.”

Coroner Was Not Informed

Albany County Coroner John Marran, who officially stated that Pritikin used a razor to slash his arms, said Sunday that “I didn’t know about (the scalpel) until a couple of days ago. I thought it was a razor blade because I saw a razor in the room.”

Marran said the Police Department usually notifies him of evidence they find, “but this time we didn’t communicate.”

“There’s no neglect,” Marran said. “It’s just one of those things.”

Pritikin, who checked into the hospital under an assumed name, was known to hospital workers as Howard Malmuth. No one knew that he was really Pritikin until after his death.

He had come to the Albany Medical Center to receive an experimental drug treatment for leukemia.