Demerol Shot Probable Cause of Death; Cops Want To Talk To Michael Jackson's Doctor
By Susie Madrak Friday Jun 26, 2009 10:00am
Just one more example of the best healthcare system in the world:
Police want to interview Michael Jackson's doctor after the star's family suggested he died because of a drug overdose, according to reports.
The King of Pop suffered a cardiac arrest at his home in Holmby Hills and was taken to the UCLA medical centre where he was pronounced dead.
Tmz.com said Jackson received a daily injection of Demerol, a synthetic narcotic similar to morphine, but was given "too much" on Thursday.
Los Angeles police want to talk to the doctor - who lived at the star's home and administered his injections - but he has not yet been found, the entertainment website said.
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Big surprise. I knew it was drugs. I knew it was suicide.
I think he was tired of looking in the mirror.
will now dominate the public discourse on this issue for weeks.
'Death by Celebrity' was a term I read somewhere (not on the internet, apparently) given to the famously dead who perhaps were hastened along by the over ministrations of the medicos nearby, in a medical emergency.
Most famous and a subject of much conjecture is A Lincoln. His surgeon, a competent practicing doctor, was pushed aside by the then Surgeon General, who hadn't done ANY kind of doctoring in years. But he was the Surgeon General, and this was the President.
He inserted a probe into the bullet hole, and pushed it quite far into the brain, proving to all present that the President had been mortally wounded. Problem is, the probe would not have necessarily followed the path of the bullet.
Now days, it's unethical docs who maintain these people not coping with the shit we all do. So you see these super celebs with enabling docs as part of their entourage. People we all know are dangerously drugged up. Elvis, AN Smith, MJ, the list goes on.
Nothing in the story says Jackson's death is a suspected suicide and the sudden flight of the doctor seems to bring much suspicion upon the doctor. Jackson had all those concerts scheduled and wanted to perform before his children.
Sounds like another Anna Nicole Smith or Elvis situation to me. But let's wait for the official cause of death.
taking puppie upers and doggie downers and pain pills.
Hurt too bad to do shows.
And it might be self-inflected as he was as nutty as a March Hare.
The LA Times www.latimes.com has a good article today, Saturday, from a music writer who knew MJ very well from his days as an 11 year old to just a few years ago.
A great read for anyone who wants to know how he thought. He was really messed up after he turned 13.
how dare you say that..what is your problem!?michael ain't did nothing to you? he did not want to kill hisself the doctor gave him the injection?why would you say that he was tired of looking in the mirror. you must a low life ignorant human being.....
another killer Dr. I wonder what BillO,'s rants will be on this.
TMZ.com is not a reputable news source. They are an online version of The National Enquirer and other check out line rags.
The coroner said it would take 6-8 weeks before they get the toxicology results. Since this is not earth shattering news like a war or a natural disaster and is just the death of a celebrity, let's just wait for the results from the lab before jumping to conclusions.
they've ever been wrong on too much. The Enquirer was right about John Edwards. From what I've seen TMZ has really good sources. It's been widely known and admitted to that Jackson had an addiction problem. I don't think that's "jumping to conclusions". A real close family friend has spoken out and said the people around him were enablers and this was going to become another Anna Nicole. He was very upset. The cops think there is something to it, they are looking for the doctor who is AWOL. That all being said, we won't know for sure until the autopsy results, but to say this is jumping to conclusions, is silly.
TMZ has people on the payroll all over LA and NY and probably Vegas. People know they will get paid if the tip off TMZ.
TMZ was the one that broke the death story first.
Let's not knock the National Enquirer. Remember "Men In Black"? According to them, it's an authoritative source!
Demerol is a medication for pain, and is very addictive. If it is mixed with alcohol, it can kill.
That doctor who injected him daily is probably headed for South America now -- apparently he's missing.
Apparently this mystery doctor gave Michael the Demerol shot then Michael went into cardiac arrest.
According to this story the doctor was actually administering CPR when the paramedics arrived:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/u...
Ethically and professionally this doctor should have gone straight to the hospital in order to assist the E.R. doctors with information etc.
BTW, there is a drug called Narcan that can be administered in the event of an overdose of a narcotic that will reverse the effects of the narcotic.
In my opinion, if MJ was receiving Demerol injections at home on a regular basis the physician should have had several doses of Narcan on site in case of this type of emergency (assuming the Demerol did him in).
A major lawsuit is probably coming down the pike against this doctor, which is most likely why he high-tailed it outta there.
Thanks for the post and insightful assessment on the issue. Do you have a background in the medical field? Only asking because there is no way I would have known about Narcan.
With over 25 years of experience and licenses in Ohio, Florida, California and New York.
Maybe he can hide in Maria's apartment.
the more we learn about his death. Both were addicted to demerol, both wasted away while under the "care" of a doctor, and both were surrounded by sycophants all looking out for themselves. I always thought Hughes doctor should have gone to jail. It will be interesting to see what happens with Jackson's.
I bet there is a suicide by addiction and OD factor here.
He could not have been a happy person - a disfigured, broke, pedophile, junkie, aging, tormented "has been".
well... if you put it that way....
In all seriousness, it is not as if other more important stuff was going on in the world.
If Anna Nicole Smith was bad, I shudder what the next weeks of the Jackson/Fawcett/McMahon trifecta is going to be like... The people at the top must be ecstatic though. They are so "lucky" always the darnest coincidences. Now they don't even have to make up sh*t for a while to keep the sheeple distracted, with such bones providence throws their way... I am starting to get the feeling that maybe our deities are the assholes not the benevolent pious beings assumed to be?
for a concert tour that was to start in just a week or two. They said he had been practicing in a hanger at the airport and was clearing over doing it. I'm sure he was under a lot stress as well. He was also sick the night before, but his AWOL doctor said he didn't need to go to the hospital. Looks like the AWOL doctor has a lot of 'splainin to do.
Ola Ray was suing him for Thriller royalties.
...that the guy was 100lbs soaking wet. It ain't a stretch that a poor, shattered soul like MJ might have had an eating disorder to go with everything else. That sort of thing can really put stress on the heart.
But heck, now I am just gossiping. This thing about the Demerol seems to be the story.
i just hope, in vain, that they don't cancel the news for 3-4 weeks of wall to wall Michael. We CAN do MJ and the rest of the news, MSM! Give us some credit!
The MSM typically becomes as useless as a tit on a log whenever some show-bizzy, gossipy story pops up, which this one really is.
Iranis, polar bears and killer flu victims will indeed need to fend silently for themselves now, thanks much to our western media machine and it's built in dysfunctions.
What is the statistic??
250,000 Americans killed by doctor F-ups every year??!?
To me that is due to too many people getting into medicine for the wrong reasons...
$$$$$$$
I don't want my doctor thinking about what color stitching the seats in his new Maserati should be as he is giving me a shot of a drug he says I NEED...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colors
Private Doctors for the rich = legal pushers.
"So Mr. Jackson, just tell me what you want?"
I think Elvis had one of these "personal" physicians too.
A good chunk of the doctors I see today seem to be pimps for pharma companies more than anything else.
A. Ugly "true" stories about perversion, drugs, abuse come out in the books stores?
B. The rumors start that his death was faked, and he has escaped to South America or was abducted by aliens, etc?
C. Impersonators start showing up EVERYWHERE?
This will be the Elvis of the 21st century.
... Elvis was a white man that sang and moved like a black man.
... Jackson was a black man that looked and acted like a white man.
Think about it man.... Jackson was a disguised Elvis! He was right there in front of our faces all this time!
We spent so much time looking at his nose, I guess we didn't notice.
between Michael Jackson and a ghost?
One is all-white and has a scary face.
The other is a supernatural being.
Oh.....wait.....sorry.
I'm not quite sure what you meant by that.
I've met too many white people who think that black people are 'acting white' when they're able to use correct English, or aren't walking around with their pants hanging down.
If you think that acting like a violent, illiterate, idiot, who can't speak in complete sentences, or is in prison is what being black is, then I must call you a bigot.
However, there's a chance that you don't mean that. So please clarify.
I'd be very interested in what you had to say.
Just to note: I do think that Michael Jackson was insane. I also think he bleached his skin, and probably was a pedophile. If you think that's 'acting white' then I must say, you're probably offending a lot of white people as well.
Isolated, depressed, cared for by sycophants, blighted and defeated by celebrity, strung out, physically spent, living off the proceeds of talent that began to wither decades before.
Sound familiar?
He even married Elvis' daughter. The only difference between 'The King' and 'The King of Pop' was that Elvis destroyed his body with fried peanut butter & banana sandwiches and speed, while Jackson did it with cosmetic surgery, bleach & demerol.
Coming next: the deification of Michael Jackson, complete with worshippers at his tomb, the whitewashing of his sordid life and endless lawsuits over his kids, debts and music royalties. We've all seen this movie before.
... then we can safely say he closed the circle.
No worse way to go than leaving your kingly evidence floating for all to see...
was majorly impacted due to the drug abuse. I don't think anything had dropped in his toilet for a long time.
to toilet humor.
;)
a whopper.
Oh, man.....
L.A. will never be the same.
at Burger King?
Love it...
n/t
these are the facts:
The paramedics found MJ dead as a doornail. The private MD wanted him to be pronounced in the ED, not at home. The MD is now in Argentina hiking the Appalachian trail. A simple shot of naloxone would have averted this tragedy.
yep, but the idiot "personal physician" didn't have any available on scene...instead, after he OD'd MJ with Demerol, he gave him Lidocaine, clearly cardio-toxic,and defintely NOT indicated to reverse the effects of demerol, especially if potentiated by other Opiates...
Having worked in the music biz for 19 years and knowing what artists are expected to do in a performance, like it or not, they take painkillers in 90% of the very physical acts. MJ performed with broken ribs, sprained ankles, displaced vertebrae & took painkillers. Without them no performance. I'm not saying it is a good thing, but believe what you like, painkillers are a way of life in dance and high energy performances.
Doctor are not in it for $$, they know what these performers go through day after day, stage after stage. This past season on Dancing with the Stars Melissa Rycroft bruised or fractured her ribs & don't think for a minute she came back the next week without at least Vicoden or stronger.
Michael was a perfectionist and pushed his body harder than most will ever know. Even in his 20's he was repeatedly injured.
Pretend it is the doctor if you like, pretend it was MJ if you like. I worked on the crew during the Thriller era and it was a medical necessity.
MJ thanks for all you gave us.
90% of performances are done on painkillers? That's absurd.
I've known and worked with many dancers, actors and singers. I have friends who have worked as acrobats at Cirque du Soleil. I have personally worked with several established fight choreographers and stuntmen, who without exception insisted on safe, injury-free performances. It goes with the job, and the working conditions stipulated in the union contracts of SAG, Equity, AFTRA and Variety.
Well-trained, fit performers don't rely on drugs to get themselves through shows. If you're well-rehearsed, injuries are rare, or should be. Drugs in the work environment are definitely frowned upon by professional performers - and the producers who hire them. Nobody with any sense of professionalism or self-preservation would put themselves at risk working with anyone who dampens their reflexes and perceptions with any substance stronger than Tylenol.
And how does what you say excuse Jackson, who by all reports has abused drugs for years, even in the long stretches when he wasn't performing? What about the 'Jesus juice' (red wine) and pills he shared with underage boys? Was this necessary for his work?
there is some truth in what you both have to say.
It's too bad that MJ's obsession with youth was expressed in weird behavior, plastic surgery, and surrounding himself with kids instead of more healthy ways to preserve his health.
That said, his act was incredibly physically demanding. He was 50 and how many professional athletes keep going through their forties (baseball, basketball, FB) and can stay at the level of peak performance they were in in their 20s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpxl7yZ9CE
thanks, that made me smile. :)
thanks, ysb
Thanks, ysb! Woohoo!
industry, maybe it's the music industry that's f**ked up. Nobody should have to do that to make money... for themselves but especially for a bunch of suits and coat tail riders and hangers on.
I read this last night. Did you just copy and paste your own post from another thread?
No lo contendere...guilty....but I did modify, add and elaborate that painkillers ARE a way of life for a very significant number of athletic performers. As an eyewitness & having known literally hundreds of dancers & performers, it was their breakfast during performance & rehearsal season. I didn't want MJ to be singled out as the only one since the perception is that painkillers are the exception, not the rule. That's simply not true. Bulemia & painkillers are used to maintain low weight & work through injuries in way too many cases. MJ performed since early childhood and didn't take a break til he was 40. Many of his injuries are well documented as is his use of painkillers. He was the best.
I'm just sayin'. So busted...
And I woulda thunk it was botox.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKFeuBfDTso
"Los Angeles police want to talk to the doctor - who lived at the star's home and administered his injections - but he has not yet been found, the entertainment website said."
He's hiking a mountain trail?
it's a tragedy, you have to wonder how many times this has to happen to celebrities. I wasn't really a fan, but he did have a some good songs if you like that type of music. I blame his parents for turning him into a freak. I choose to remember the guy for his help with Ryan White and AIDS and the We Are the World thing and for the other humanitarian things he did. Rest In Peace Michael, you deserve it for having lived such a hard life.
This is the best drug pusher money can buy. To compare this to healthcare in any fashion is a detriment to our cause.
Please stop the hyperbole!
Celebrities and their private doctor enablers don't have chit to do with the healthcare mess in this country.
... a lot of physicians in this country act as pushers of big pharma products. You would be astounded to read some of the figures of "legal drug addiction" levels in this country.
I have plenty of pharmacist friends, and all of the agree... their jobs, at large, are as legal dealers. A significant amount of their customers are normal, well to do middle class, god fearing, white bread Americans... who basically are addicted to a litany of pharmaceuticals, and who behave in the same irrational manner as a crack addict would if he had dropped his rock down the toilet... every time they have an issue with their insurance.
A friend was assaulted when one of her clients had his insurance change the rate in the specific medication, and the prospect of running low on said medication was enough to push that lady to act like any junkie when the prospect of not having access to their drugs presents itself.
In the same sense that insurance reps get to decide what treatment patients have access to without any medical knowledge and with only the financial benefit for their bottom line as their regulator... pharma reps are many times the ones influencing what medicine people have access to. My wife gets invited to a fancy dinner paid for by drug reps every few weeks... talk about conflict of interests.
That incestuous relationship between big pharma and big HMO is truly of American persuasion, since it is downright illegal in most other industrialized countries. I.e. attending such dinners sponsored by pharmaceutical corporations would be grounds for disciplinary actions (and review of medical license) in most EU countries for example.
Exactly - to say this is an "example" of the US healthcare is like saying Rush Limbaugh is an "example" of human beings. Sure, Limbaugh is (allegedly) a human, but he is not representative of us all.
I disagree it's health care for sale
So some people can't afford it
And die
And some people can afford too much
And die.
Does Jackson's death prove access to health care unimportant?
I understand what you're saying, but this is no different than buying a car (as Hilzoy over at Washington Monthly wrote last night). MJ could afford Bugatti while I might have a Ford Pinto. This has NOTHING to do with healthcare except that he was, apparently, an addict and he died.
To say this is about healthcare for normal American's is, IMHO, a bad comparison, and one which is very detrimental to the cause of healthcare for all.
"One more example of the best healthcare system in the world?"
Really, Susie? I understand that this blog is political in nature, and that this story sure has a wide range of social, political, & pop-culture angles, but do you *really* believe that the shady death of one of the world's more eccentric, troubled, and (current debts nonwithstanding) wealthy entertainers is somehow the fault of a poor healthcare system?
As is every other death, this story is a tragedy -- a tragedy that, in some respects, appears to be the type of unfortunate destination that MJ has been heading for for quite some time now.
But blaming the healthcare system seems not that far from blaming the state of the economy for abandoning one's governmental responsibilities and jetting to Argentina for a rendezvous with one's mistress.
Of the many demons that MJ has surely contended with over the years, a lack of access to premium healthcare was surely *not* one of his problems.
everything back to their beat or schtick. That's why every outrage by a right wing nut must link to Beck in some minds. That's why even acts of infidelity by a Republican must be Obama's fault to Rush.
Michael Weiner Savage said OBAMA DID IT TO SANFORD! Sly one that Obama is!
Rather than having Sanford be the victim of the unintended consequences of Obama's action (a la Rushbo), Obama is deliberately manipulating the members of Republicans to do them in. He is THE ONE!
You're right.
Morpheus: "Do you believe me now, Trinity?"
Tank: "He IS The One. I knew it!"
such a sexist he never let Trinity answer questions herself.
I always get such joy when using quotes from my fav flick.
And, uhm, I hate to burst a bubble, but that was in different scenes. :-)
Would it make me sexist if I hoped and prayed for Trinity's ass? I want to wear latex that well!!
It's their new variation on an old theme.
I mean, apparently his assertion is that Obama forced Sanford's dick into another woman living on another continent. And all those lovey dovey emails Obama CLEARLY forced the governor to write by giving him titty-twisters and power noogies. Poor, helpless Sanford! To be so bullied and beaten by some wussified, limp-wristed librul!! My heart bleeds.
Weiner could gabble, drool, and do primal scream therapy into his mic for 3 hours and sound more coherent and reasonable than this drivel. What an asshat.
Michael Jackson stories abound.
Must we do it too?
Who forced you to come in here and comment on this story? Was it OBAMA? That bastige!!!!!!
/snark
across the land
the midnight hour is close at hand
for his friendship with Ryan White and his work with the AIDS crisis. My older brother died with AIDS a couple years after Ryan died. He got AIDS the same way Ryan did, thanks to Saint Ronnie Raygun and his refusal to allow testing of blood. Thanks Michael, your work helped my family tremendously.
acknowledging the good he's done. From his work with Elizabeth Taylor & Madonna for AIDS, to "We are the World" to help in African relief, MJ was there with time, money, compassion and dedication. There are literally thousands of stories like yours where MJ helped lives. May both your brother and MJ RIP.
whole heartedly.
I checked her Twitter and nothing. I hope she's not being a drama queen right now.
UPDATE: Liz is Twittering big-time.....and, as per the above, being a HUGE drama queen.
it's a wonder that she's still kicking it around...
Iran. Health care. Single payer. Don't ask, don't tell. MoveOn is targeting Senator Kay Hagan from North Carolina--someone many of us donated to--as an obstructionist on health care.
I'm sorry for anyone's untimely death. Let's not allow this to obscure what's affecting the quality of life for so many, however.
I heard CNN a short while ago state that the police did talk to MJ's doctor yesterday and that he is a carfdiologist. The police want to talk with him again.
Who knows what really happened, though?
I will stick with the theory that Jackson died of fright experienced at a seance.
but will it exorcise gay demons as well?
Neato, Andy!
the Jackson clan via the FCC investigation of Janet's wardrobe malfunction? Huh?
Is quite inappropriate. This is especially true if the chronic pain in question is attributed to an injury. To have the Demerol prescribed and administered by a live-in doctor, that is to say, a personal acquaintance, or someone who is financially dependent on the patient, is also quite inappropriate. If these facts are correct about this case, then this death was utterly predictable. These facts would not be a prediction that the opioid use would likely get out of control, they are proof that it was already wildly out of control.
This sort of case, of self-administration of drugs, and not the case of drug addiction, is why medications were put under control a century and a half ago. Before that, people were free to self-administer anything in the pharmacopia. While it is true that drug laws do not do a good job of keeping true addicts away from their drugs of choice, they do an excellent job of keeping most people from self-adminstration. Very few of us do not suffer from pains of one sort or another, and opioids are good for what ails you, whatever that may be. For every one person at risk for addiction, there are many, many more at risk for getting into trouble for what starts out as appropriate use as an analgesic. Under our current system, whatever its other failings, only the very few who own their private physicians can self-medicate in this fashion.
I miss the person he was when he was young.
But the sick twisted thing he became... I won't miss it for a moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxy9-Em2z68
"Stars" at this level take all sorts of drugs. Add to that the anorexia and the plastic surgery and you've got yourself a walk corpse.
Back in '93 I was working on a Jackson story for the Los Angles Times which, realizing where it was going, scotched it. Still have voluminous notes.
This was the time of Jordie Chandler -- whose family was paid 20 million to keep from filing charges.
Michael Jackson was One Sick Puppy.
And I don't say that with love.
He was already one of best singers in the business with perfect pitch and timing at age 5.
Plus he had to swallow the criticism of the whole world. Especially in this critical, cynical, minutia driven culture we live in.
My best guess is, if you want to commit suicide via drugs, you leave a will or a statement of intent so that all chaos doesn't ensue after your departure. Also, a doctor won't typically administer a leathal dose on your behalf because of thier oath, "do no harm". Typically it's a family member or trusted friend.
The absense of the doctor is alarming, there should be an investigation and I'm sure there will be one.
So MJ was a very, very talented and very, very effed up human being. The two are not mutually exclusive. Let's let him have his 15 minutes of after-death adulation and move on.
Peace.
The man was not perfect. He wasn't just the talented musician and he wasn't just the pedophile or "Wacko Jacko." He was a combination of his life experiences good and bad the likes of which none of us can ever know. He was a complicated, troubled showman as well as father, brother, son and friend to many.
There will be people who will miss him and people who won't. But he was human and had his faults just like the rest of us. He deserves to be remembered and ultimately he will probably be remembered mostly for his music. Too bad that we can't just celebrate the best of him and leave the rest behind. But to remember MJ will be to remember everything that made him MJ in the first place: the good, the bad and the ugly. None of it can be separated out from the rest. It has to be taken as a whole.
with Lionel Ritchie and many of our most talented singer/songwriters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne7fPpxAnuM&fe...
Those were good years.
It's sad when anyone dies young- but people die every day- why is the world reacting to Jackson's death? How about the scores of people who die of hunger every day, or in war zones in the Middle East?
They have as much right to get equal recognition..
Jackson's death is tabloid news..
a man who fought to end hunger in Africa, worked to raise money and awareness for AIDS and helped make it more socially acceptable. He put his talents and money to huge crisis to garner public support for issues that afffected more than "scores" of afflicted people, probably millions.
That's why. He BROUGHT recognition to hunger, social injustice and illness.
Elvis and the king of Pop have been compared again and again, so tell me, who is Michael Jacksons Col Tom Parker? That's what I want to know. Who holds the bag now?
Lyrics from Michael Jackson's song, "Morphine" -
http://www.allmichaeljackson.com/lyrics/morph...
Look at the middle section of the lyrics:
____________________________________
Close your eyes and drift away
Demerol
Demerol
Oh God he's taking Demerol
Demerol
Demerol
Oh God he's taking Demerol
He's tried
Hard to convince her
To be over what he had
Today he wants it twice as bad
______________________________________
Jackson's toxicology report is gonna look like an encyclopedia.....sad
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