PLEASE HELP

So I need some assistance. I have a friend who has been sporadically abusing ambien and fioricet (not at the same time.) This was actually something both of us got into together, though I have been much much better about cutting down/ stopping. she however has not. To my knowledge she is taking about 60mg of ambien for about 4 nights at a time and then won't take it again till her next script is due (usually a week or two later.) As for the firoicet, I've known her take about 6-7 each time and this is usually for about 6 or 7 days at a time and then she may not use it again for a few months. (I know her pattern, cause it use to be my own as well.)
I a rare occassion she had both meds in her possession yesterday and she just told me that last night she had taken the ambien and doesn't remember much, but she woke up and realized there were 14 or 15 of the pills gone.

Her husband told her she was asleep midnight so she thinks she took the pills before then.
Then she told me that she woke up with a bad headache and took a total of 6 or 7 fioricet around 1:00 this afternoon.
So I'm worried, is she in danger at this very moment? I'm aware that overall she has to stop this but I feel extremely anxious about her having all those meds in a 24 hours. I'm worried about possible interaction-- However, I read the half life of ambien is roughly 2-4 hours so I figure it may have been out of her system by the time she took the fioricet. Please let me know if you think she'll be ok or I have a need to get her to a hospital or something. I am crawling the walls wondering if she's ok. Thank you.

[J T Junig, MD PhD]

The biggest danger is that she will continue to take higher and higher doses, eventually taking a large enough combination of meds to cause respiratory arrest-- which then causes brain damage or death.  Both medications are dangerous when combined with alcohol-- or with each other.

A second danger is the Fioricet  contains acetaminophen, which is dangerous in high doses.  Doses over 4 grams-- 4000 mg-- can cause significant liver damage and even result in liver failure.  

I suggest that you drag your friend to a hospital ER, where hopefully the staff will do their job, and push treatment.  Too many ERs simply ignore cases when the person has any ambivalence about treatment;  hopefully your ER will have someone who takes responsiblity for your friend's health problem, and helps get her into treatment.