Showing posts with label propofol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label propofol. Show all posts

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Emotional Pain of Seeing Michael Jackson’s Dead Body Language During Opening Arguments



Seeing Michael Jackson’s dead body language in this shocking photo which was presented by the prosecution on the first day of the Conrad Murray is beyond devastating and painful for me. The photo says it all. In my view, it will also have a lasting effect on jurors just as it has an indelible effect on me and anyone else viewing it.

It shows a helpless Michael Jackson lying on a gurney covered with a sheet on the lower half of his body. It shows the results of the actions of a doctor who irresponsibly administered propofol when he should have known better than to give it to his patient.

So what if was reported Michael demanded to have it. So what of Michael allegedly had a drug problem and drug addiction issues. It was not Michael’s call. Michael was the patient and not the doctor. But unfortunately as we see here, there are doctors who will do whatever a patient wants simply because they are a star and can pay big money and they know they will get a lot of perks. Unfortunately this goes on all the time in Los Angeles doctors who cater to the Hollywood community. In fact there is a vulgar name for these type of doctors who are often referred to as “STAR F***ERS. Unfortunately , this was clearly the case here.

Seeing Michael lying there so helplessly with his mouth agape brings forth a myriad of emotions. For me it brought forth a torrent of tears. It stimulated a personal memory of how sweet Michael was to a homeless woman just days before he died. Having my office on Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, I was well aware of a sweet woman who used to hang out in the street. Many passers by, including myself often watched out for her, giving her food and money.

One day Michael spotted her after he left Dr. Arnold Klein’s office a block away on Roxbury Drive. He had his driver stop his black SUV and summoned the woman to come inside his car where she later shared that Michael gave her words of encouragement and inspiration and was so loving and generous. with personal gifts and money.

Seeing the above photo continued to make me cry as I thought of Paris and Prince having to see their beloved daddy this way for the last time. I thought of Blanket who is still as traumatized now as he was since the funeral.

The photo also brought forth anger in me . The anger is directed at Conrad Murray, a doctor Michael trusted. That trust was betrayed as the doctor left the room to chat up his girlfriend while Michael was in crises.

While Murray should have never administered the lethal drug outside of the operating room, let alone in Michael’s bedroom, the fact that he wasn’t there to monitor Michael with proper equipment and left Michael all alone is unconscionable.

Had he been there and he seen that Michael was in physical trouble, he could have quickly revived him or he could have done immediate CPR measures to save his life. Michael died because of this doctor’s negligence in my view. Whether or not Michael had other issues or health related issues is irrelevant. In my view Murray’s negligence is what put the final nail in Michael’s coffin.

Yes, everyone deserves a fair trial but what is fair about leaving a person alone to die by not monitoring them? It screams of incompetence, lack of humanity, selfishness, and sheer greed.

Watching all of the nuances and the verbal gymnastics by the defense is a waste of my time and emotion. It hurts me deeply to watch this trial on a very very personal level as well.

I know firsthand what it feels like to lose a loved one at the hands of an incompetent negligent doctor who committed malpractice. My own very beloved brother Manny was killed at the hands of such an incompetent doctor who intubated him wrongly so that he became a vegetable and died. The doctor was only a doctor for seven months when he recklessly and incompetently ended my vivacious brother’s life.

Thus, I feel very deeply for the Jackson family (except for mercenary and obnoxious Joe). I feel for Michael’s kids the most and for his mother Katherine who not only had to put up with Toxic Joe all her life, but now continues to deal with the death of her precious and loved son.

The doctor who actually killed my brother due to his malpractice was found liable. Yet this miserable cold emotionless creature who showed no compassion is still alive and well practicing in New Jersey at the same hospital where his incompetent hands ended my brother’s life. Whenever I think of this fact, I am livid.

If I allow myself to think of the possibility that Conrad Murray may possibly get away with Michael’s death and be allowed to resume practicing medicine as though nothing happened, I get sick to my stomach.

Just as my brother did not have to die, Michael did not have to die either. I hope that Conrad Murray is NEVER allowed to practice medicine anywhere ever again and that he spends time in prison for his actions.

If Murray manned up and said he did wrong and was prepared to deal with the consequences I perhaps would have a bit more respect for him (not much but a smidgen more than I do now). But instead he is blaming everyone else. Sure there are other doctors who enabled Michael. But it was Murray who left him alone to die. That in itself is reprehensible!


Friday, September 4, 2009

The Addict, The Enabler, and Us

by Diane Dimond

As Michael Jackson is finally laid to rest, you may ask: Who is to blame when a drug addict dies?

We now know the L.A. County Coroner considers Jackson's death a homicide caused by acute Propofol intoxication and the effects of five other powerful prescription drugs found in his system.

If the L.A. District Attorney chooses to charge Michael Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, it could very well be for manslaughter. Realistically speaking it was more like assisted suicide.

Michael Jackson had flooded his body with drugs for years. He went into drug rehab in 1993, he was often very obviously over-mediated during his 2005 child sex abuse trial, and during the run-up to his massive comeback concert tour this year we've now learned he was engaged in an orgy of drugs and self destructive behavior.

So, doesn't Michael Jackson bear some of the responsibility for his own death?

Before you answer let me tell you about a sworn affidavit, attached to a now unsealed search warrant, which outlines excruciating details about Michael Jackson's tragic final days. In the last hours of his life he was injected by his doctor or given oral doses of no fewer than four heavy-duty drugs. The last medication was Propofol, a drug used as surgical anesthesia. There are indications that when the doctor was not in the room Jackson may have sneaked even more medications in his continuing quest to end his insomnia. It's typical addict behavior.

At Jackson's bedside when he died there was a cornucopia of prescription pills, ordered up by several different doctors using fictitious patient names. It is a federal offense to prescribe pharmaceuticals under an alias. But there they were: Bottles of Valium, Tamsulosin, Lorazepam, Temazepam, Clonazepam, Trazodone and Tizanidine. Drugs used as hypnotic sedatives, to reduce pain, anxiety and muscle tension. Some treated sleeplessness. Others have a relatively high addictive potential and some are frequently sold and abused as street drugs. Finally, there was one prescription to treat an enlarged prostate, a nod to Jackson's over-50 status.

In other words, one glance at that nightstand, and a red flag should have gone up to any trained doctor that this was not a person for whom one should prescribe more drugs. But according to that sworn affidavit several doctors did – a cardiologist, a dermatologist and a general practitioner among them. Others known to have prescribed to Jackson in the recent past include at least two anesthesiologists, a plastic surgeon, a dentist and other general practitioners. Jackson had obviously been doctor shopping – but the doctors were celebrity shopping, no doubt.

Don't the doctors bear some responsibility for Jackson’s death? And what responsibility do the die-hard Michael Jackson fans bear for their blind worship? His drug addiction was no secret, yet the throngs of his followers continued to be dazzled by his stardom. Their continuing admiration sent a signal to both Jackson and his doctors that celebrity trumps all the normal rules. The status quo was working and there was no reason for the superstar to change his ways, no pressure from the entourage, because those who tried to warn Jackson to take care of his health were banished. As Jackson continued to demand more medications there were more people brought in to his long, slow suicidal process. Actually, it's a wonder he lived as long as he did.

Michael Jackson suffered from a lot of obvious maladies, many self inflicted. Not only was he abusing massive amounts of drugs, he suffered from anorexia and a body dysmorphic disorder that compelled him to repeatedly hire doctors to change his face. He had children who didn't know their mothers, he shut out much of his family lest they tell him how to live his life, and he seemed a reclusive, nomadic hermit who was never quite able to shake the taint of his child molestation trial acquittal.

Yet there were legions of fans who sent him the message that he was still the King of Pop! And there were countless doctors standing by to prescribe what he needed to get through his days.

Even in death there is blind adoration. A politician in New York is pushing to get a Brooklyn subway station – the venue for one of Jackson’s music videos – named after him. A U.S. Congresswoman pushed for an official House of Representatives commendation for the entertainer. There has been a movement to get a Michael Jackson postage stamp. What's wrong with this picture?

The truth is record numbers of Americans – tens of millions of them – are using and abusing prescription drugs. They are sick people in need of help, either for their underlying illness or for their addiction to these drugs. While I've always advocated personal responsibility, I've come to realize the responsibility must radiate outward too.

Everyone who's ever enabled a drug addict shares in the responsibility.