The partner of David Paterson, the millionaire who was found unconscious in his hotel room in Randburg on Thursday, says his drink was laced with drugs.
Carrol Bouah said she suspected that Paterson drank whisky laced with drugs.
Paterson, 61, a Port Elizabeth property developer, became the first person to win R1-million in the TV game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire earlier this year. He gave 15 correct answers on the popular show and used two of his three lifelines to win R1-million.
Bouah denied Thursday's reports that her partner, who was discovered by Randburg City Lodge cleaners slumped on the floor, had taken a drug overdose.
She said Paterson, who had booked into the lodge on Monday after arriving from Port Elizabeth, was having drinks in the hotel pub with a man who was also a hotel customer on Wednesday evening. They were later joined by a lady, whom Paterson did not know.
She said Paterson, a Scot who enjoyed a fine bottle of Scotch, went to his room after the drinks on Wednesday night.
Bouah said that when the cleaners knocked on Paterson's hotel door on Thursday morning and there was no reply, they opened the door and found him slumped on the floor.
Paramedics were summoned to his room and he was rushed to the adjacent Sandton Medi-Clinic in an unconscious state.
"The paramedics found a bottle of whisky which was three-quarters full and his cholesterol and high blood pressure tablets on the table. He also had vitamins on the table, but he did not even take his tablets.
"He could get drunk but he would never be in a comatose or paraplegic state. His drink was laced with a 'substance', but I don't know who did it," Bouah said.
She said doctors said he had alcohol in his blood and another substance, which she refused to divulge.
Bouah said she immediately flew to Johannesburg from Cape Town after she received the news on Thursday morning that her partner had been taken to hospital.
She said Paterson was able to speak but he was weak. He did not recall what had happened to him.
The manager of Sandton's Medi-Clinic, Wimpie Aucamp, confirmed that Paterson was brought to the clinic's emergency room in an unconscious state.