How Michael Jackson Died

How Michael Jackson Died

•Family received body yesterday
By Tunde Sulaiman with agency reports, 06.28.2009

Fresh facts are now emerging on how the king of pop music, Michael Jackson met his sudden death last Thursday afternoon in his Los Angeles home.
Details emerging from Los Angeles yesterday revealed that double dos-age of painkiller drugs might have been inadvertently administered on him at short intervals by a nurse and later, a doctor.
The musician’s personal physician who some said is named Dr. Conrad Murray  is believed to have administered the Demerol pain-killer drugs on the musician without knowing that a nurse had earlier injected him with the same drug.
The drug is said to be capable of causing respiratory depression and shallow breathing.
It is believed that “after taking the Demerol, he (Jackson) started to experience slow,shallow breathing. His breathing gradually got slower and slower until it stopped.”
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) are already looking for both the doctor and the nurse who attended to Michael Jackson at the time he collapsed.
A spokesman for the LAPD had confirmed that officers were looking for a doctor who was at the star’s house at the time of the collapse.
“We are looking for him because that is a normal part of an investigation like this. We cannot confirm the name of the doctor,” the police spokesman said.
Meanwhile, a Houston Lawyer yesterday said his firm has been hired by the doctor who reportedly was with Jackson when he collapsed.
According to Houston lawyer, William M. Stradley, a partner in the firm of Stradley, Chernoff & Alford, Dr. Conrad Murray, who was with Jackson when he died, hired his firm to represent him.
Stradley says investigators have indicated Murray is considered a witness and is not a target in any way.
Stradley says one of the partners, Edward Chernoff, is in Los Angeles meeting with Police Department investigators.
Jackson was in full cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at his rented mansion in the Holmby Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, with his personal physician trying desperately to revive him.
However, the body of the late musician has, however, been released to his family for burial, a Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman said yesterday, after an autopsy failed to immediately determine what killed the troubled pop star.
Jackson’s body was released to family members after they chose a mortuary for funeral arrangements, Harvey said. There was no immediate word on when he would be laid to rest.
Members of Jackson’s family were said to be gathering at his parents’ home in suburban Los Angeles to plan a funeral for the “King of Pop,” whose sudden death on Thursday dominated worldwide headlines and touched off two days of tributes from fans.
No funeral plans have been disclosed to the public.
The autopsy carried out on the body of Michael Jackson on Friday failed to provide doctors with clues as to what actually killed the “King of Pop,” even as reports persist that he had been injected with a narcotic painkiller shortly before collapsing.
The coroner’s address to the media at the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office was thrice postponed before a spokesman, Craig Harvey finally showed up to newsmen of the request by the medical examiner for additional testing such as toxicology and other studies to determine what led to the sudden death of the 50-year-old pop superstar. He did, however, say the initial autopsy did not give any indication of any external trauma or indication of foul play.
He said there were unanswered questions surrounding the death, including the role of the personal cardiologist who was with Michael Jackson when he died.
The 50-year-old pop superstar was rushed to nearby UCLA Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead without regaining consciousness.
“The cause of death (determination) has been deferred, which means that the medical examiner has ordered additional testing such as toxicology and other studies,” Los Angeles County Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey said. “Those tests we anticipate will take an additional four to six weeks.”
Speaking to a throng of reporters outside the coroner’s office, Harvey said, “There was no indication of any external trauma or indication of foul play to the body of Mr. Jackson.”
However, despite the coroner’s claim, Jackson has been dogged by repeated allegations of having a record of medical problems. He always looked very thin and appeared frail.
The health questions began early in his solo career, mostly surrounding his apparent plastic surgery, and continued as photographs documented his oddly lightening skin colour. Jackson addressed that issue, acknowledging that he suffered from vitiligo, a skin disorder in which the pigment cells in the skin are destroyed, leaving white patches.
In 1984, the singer was hospitalised after receiving second-degree burns when his hair accidentally caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. Jackson reportedly used a hyperbaric oxygen chamber while he recovered and allegedly also slept in the chamber in an effort to halt the aging process — photos of him lying in one were leaked in 1986,  — a claim he denied.
Around Christmas of last year, a British journalist working on a biography of the pop star revealed that Jackson was suffering from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic condition that affects the lungs and liver. The author, Ian Halperin, told In Touch magazine at the time that Jackson needed a lung transplant and was bleeding in the intestines. He also claimed that Jackson couldn’t see out of his left eye and was so winded that he could barely speak most of the time. Jackson’s spokesman, Dr. Tohme Tohme, was widely quoted as denying the health problems, saying that the rumours were a “total fabrication” and that Jackson was “in fine health.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Jackson seemed driven and upbeat in the weeks, even hours, before his death as he rehearsed rigorously for a series of 50 concerts in London that were to begin a late-career comeback.
Friends and colleagues on Friday said Jackson appeared in recent months to be rejuvenated by the prospect of performing again.
US President, Senator Barrack Obama called Jackson a “spectacular performer” but said he believed aspects of his life were “sad and tragic”, the White House said.

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