Friday 3 August 2001

Mariah hosp nightmare

New details emerged yesterday of Mariah Carey's anguished state of mind on the night she was rushed to a hospital in the midst of a physical and mental breakdown. A source told the Daily News the 31-year-old singer seemed very distressed when she arrived at Northern Westchester Hospital Center in Mount Kisco early July 26. "She was extremely depressed," said the source. "She was pretty much out of it."

The source, who said he saw Carey at the hospital, claimed she had bandages on both wrists and hands in the emergency room. "The palms of her hands and wrists were bandaged," he said. That account raised fresh questions about what really happened just before her mother, Patricia Carey, made a frantic 911 call for help the night of July 25.

Carey's representatives have acknowledged she broke glasses and dishes out of frustration earlier that day - "and may have stepped on them". But they repeatedly have denied reports she tried to commit suicide or hurt herself.

Asked last night about the reports of the bandages, Carey's team marshaled a flurry of denials, including one from a man who claimed to be an ambulance driver who treated her that night. "She didn't slit her wrists," said the man, who identified himself as Peter Nuzzo. "There were no bandages." He said he had been asked to call The News by Ron Nash, Carey's business manager. Nash then called The News and also said the account of the bandages was not true.

"There were no slashed wrists, no cuts or bandages," according to Nash, who said he was at the hospital when Carey was brought in. Her manager, Louise McNally, also repeated the denial of a suicide attempt - and insisted Carey's wrists and hands were never bandaged. "There was not a mark on her hands or wrists then and there's not a mark on her hands or wrists now," McNally told The News after visiting the singer yesterday at the Connecticut psychiatric hospital where she is being treated.

The source gave The News the following account of what happened when Carey was taken by ambulance, first to Northern Westchester Hospital Center and later moved to the Connecticut facility. Just after 2 a.m. on July 26, Carey arrived by ambulance along with her mother, the source said. She was wearing sneakers, faded jeans and white tank top. "She was pretty much out of it," the source said, adding, "There was no evidence that she had been drinking or taking drugs."

The stressed-out singer seemed to rally after she was medicated when she arrived at the hospital, the source said. And on the ambulance ride to the psychiatric hospital, she felt well enough to talk with paramedics and tap messages out on her portable pager. Carey remained under doctors' care at the Connecticut hospital. Patricia Carey was spotted last night at the facility.

Last week the singer had been at her mother's mansion in Goldens Bridge in Westchester County, when, after several weeks of erratic behavior, she freaked out. Patricia Carey grabbed her cell phone and called state police dispatchers asking for medical help, sources said. Carey's people said she is suffering from exhaustion brought on by insomnia and overwork.

Yesterday, a private investigator hired by Carey said the singer believed her powerful ex-husband, Sony honcho Tommy Mottola, was trying to torpedo her career - and that this drove her over the edge. "He is conducting a smear campaign against her," said Jack Palladino, the San Francisco-based sleuth. Mottola responded by saying he "is deeply saddened by Mariah's illness, and I remain completely supportive of her, both personally and professionally. Any allegations that I have tried to hinder her career are completely untrue."

(New York Post)



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