New details emerge in unexpected death of 44-year-old Texas Pastor Bryan Dunagan
Dunagan died in his sleep last October
New details emerged this week regarding the unexpected death of a Presbyterian pastor in Texas who died last October at age 44.
Bryan Dunagan, who served a decade as senior pastor of the 5,500-member Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, passed away in his sleep on Oct. 26 during the early morning hours, according to a public statement from the church at the time.
Dr. Robert J. Burke, an anesthesiologist who also serves as an elder at the church, issued a statement Tuesday explaining that Dunagan died as a result of mixing alcohol with therapeutic doses of anti-anxiety medication and a painkiller.
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"After the autopsy and a subsequent careful review of the report by a board-certified toxicologist as well as another forensic medical expert, it appears that a combination of alcohol and the two commonly prescribed medicines, in their regular therapeutic amounts, resulted in a completely unexpected and unintentional cardiac and/or pulmonary event/reaction," Burke wrote.
Burke explained in his statement that while Dunagan was a college athlete at Stanford University, he suffered a knee injury that led to pain for which he was prescribed the opiate Tramadol.
On the day he died, Dunagan had gone on a run and taken Tramadol to treat the soreness in his knee, Burke said.
Dunagan was also prescribed a low dose of sertraline, an SSRI commonly known as Zoloft, to treat anxiety. Burke noted that "Bryan had often mentioned — and even preached about — his anxiety."
"The evening before his death, Bryan hosted family at his home for dinner and drinks," Burke continued. "Early the next morning, Bryan was found unresponsive in his home."
An autopsy report obtained by the Dallas Morning News indicated that the medical examiner ruled Dunagan's death an accident and attributed it to "mixed drug toxicity to include ethanol, tramadol and sertraline."
Burke emphasized that the findings do "not mean that drugs or alcohol were abused or overdosed, or anything untoward or improper occurred."
"For inexplicable reasons, Bryan’s otherwise healthy body reacted in a surprising, sudden, and abnormal manner, resulting in his death," he added.
Dunagan is survived by his three children and his wife, Ali, who also addressed the medical findings in a recent email to the congregation of Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
"We’ve all been warned about the possible side effects and interactions of medications. Unfortunately, Bryan is in the small statistic of folks for whom these interactions were fatal," she wrote.
Ali also mentioned how her husband struggled with anxiety, noting a sermon he gave when he "described his own struggle of being stuck when he first accepted the job to come to Highland Park Pres."
She said that for her husband, medication "combined with accountability and counseling, led to his strong mental fitness and resilient joy."
She also noted how she is still reeling from her husband's death as she struggles to understand it, but that she is relying on God's faithfulness.
"The last few weeks, I’ve had to walk through another trauma as I’m again tempted to ask God, 'Why?'" she wrote. "I’ve spoken with countless doctors who are also puzzled as to how therapeutic levels of commonly prescribed medications could interact in such a way."
"However, I return to the One who walks with us through the uncertainty. God was with Bryan during his tragic passing, and He is with us as we grieve," she added.
During her husband's memorial service last fall, Ali played a clip from one of her husband's sermons in which he taught that while God often does not answer the question of why good people suffer or why there is so much evil and pain in the world, He offers to suffer with them.
"We ask God 'Why?" and His answer is 'With,'" Dunagan preached. "He gives us a new word: with. 'I am with you in this storm, in your pain. I will never leave you, never forsake you. I will be with you.'"
Dunagan said that even Jesus on the cross asked God, "Why?"
"Do you see that God takes our suffering so seriously that He was willing to take it on himself so that we can say with Karl Barth, that 'God would rather be the suffering God of a suffering people than the blessed God of an unblessed people?' And this is good news for those of us who face the storm," he said.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
