The Daily Mirror says that Dr. Conrad Murray plans to introduce evidence at his trial that will show that he is not responsible for Michael Jackson's death but that Michael was so addicted to Propofol that Michael drank it shortly before his death. According to their source, The Mirror says that Propofol was found in Michael Jackson's stomach. It could only be found there if he drank it. If this is true, then I would say Dr. Murray has an excellent chance of getting off. I think this whole trial is a waste of money. Think of the millions of dollars which are being spent and it is not going to change anything. It is not like Michael was not addicted. He was. He took this crap every day and every night. Should the doctor lose his license? Absolutely. He should not have been prescribing the stuff, but Michael knew what he was doing it and did it anyway.
Doctors who enable addicts knowingly should lose their license, but beyond that, I think the lion's share of the responsiblity needs to lie with the addict. I'm tired of everyone but the addict being held responsible for an overdose.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree; I don't think this was murder or manslaughter or negligent homicide. Negligence and dereliction of duty in general? Certainly.
ReplyDeleteDr. Murray is an admitted pusher! I do not understand whether it makes a difference that he administrated the killing shot, or swallow. What matters is he is the pusher who provided the drug.
ReplyDeleteAt the least he should serve time for pushing drugs illegally, and losing his license for a good 10 years.
The difference is that it takes away all responsibility of an addict. MJ had some control over what he was taking. He just had to say no.
ReplyDeleteI just wish MJ didn't feel like he had to do this.
ReplyDeleteThey're both at fault. Just strip the guy's license already. Doctors should NOT be enablers.
ReplyDeleteDoctor's helped Elvis essentially kill himself as well by prescribing him hundreds of pills he didn't need. When a doctor starts pushing his oath and knowledge aside for money, then he/she should probably not be practicing medicine.
ReplyDeleteI think it's obvious MJ had some serious mental issues, on top of having to cope with an unprecedented amount of fame and pressure to look good when he saw himself as horribly ugly from a young age (his father didn't help that at all). But he was rich, and attracted vultures who became his enablers and didn't help him a single bit.
The doctor might get off, but if he has any kind of conscience, this will haunt him for the rest of his life.
MJ's family would love to have the attention taken off the fact that MJ was a drug addict. The doctor should absolutely have his license stripped and he should be prosecuted, but it doesn't take away from the fact that MJ was an addict and at some point crossed the line into drug abuse. It took 2 for this tango.
ReplyDeleteDeath by prescription drugs just overtook death by traffic fatality as a cause of death in the US. People become so addicted to painkillers and psych drugs that they will do anything to get their hands on those powerful lethal drugs. I thank G*d I was a street drug user. I took Xanax twice, and each time the person giving it to me looked worse than the meth freaks and crackheads I usually partied with.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Dr in question should have his license yanked, but murder? Manslaughter? No way.
He should lose his license for the rest of his life, in every state in the US. He put a hospital use only drug in someone's house, he broke the law. He is liable, but no, he is not a murderer. Just a greedy, enabling, SOB.
ReplyDeletei heard about this awhile back but check your facts. if you drink propofol, it does nothing to you. the state will call experts that say so and apparently it's true.
ReplyDeleteso don't get too excited. even if he did, it didn't kill him.
ITA @ Barton Fink - People become so addicted to painkillers and psych drugs that they will do anything to get their hands on those powerful lethal drugs.
ReplyDeleteCindy Anthony told Dr. Phil that Casey had 2 grand mal siezures and might have a health problem. I think the she had siezures because she ran out of Zanax. You can't just quit and walk away...your body goes through serious withdrawl symptoms.
Well said MadLyb!
ReplyDeleteso he's saying Jackson was awake and alert when he left the room, drank a bottle of propafol and died quickly? Propafol's action has quick onset and offset delivered directly through the vein, it would be metabolized if it was ingested and I doubt too much would be systemically available. I don't think it can be detected in the stomach (and, if it was, it wasn't yet systemically available to cause respiratory depression). He's grasping at straws.
ReplyDeleteSorry this goes beyond malpractice. Anyone who's worked with propofal and used it as clinically appropriate knows the manner and setting in which it was given, the absence of appropriate surveillance and equipment use is likely to agree that this is, at best, criminally negligent homicide. This goes beyond prescribing drugs to keep your patient happy and being able to absolve yourself because they OD'd. Murray actively disregarded all standard safeguards for the use of anesthesia and then left the patient not only unattended, he left him without any monitoring.
@NP: Maybe she had those seizures because she ran out of Xanax because she was using them for something else and mis-calculated her re-up time...
ReplyDeleteIs the Dr. at fault? You bet. I think he should lose his liscence in every state in the US.
ReplyDeleteThe person mostly at fault is MJ himself. You have to be beyond Fk'd up to DRINK Milk of Amensia. We give it to people we want to keep medically sedated.
MJ's family wants to point fingers at everyone but MJ. It's hard to accept but he was addicted and he wanted an escape from his life. He got more then he bargained for.
What I want to know is how did this doctor get his hands on anesthesia outside of a hospital setting? One of the most important people in an operating room is the anesthesiologist. I once had a surgery canceled because the anesthisilogist (I am not going to spell that again) was got backed up from a complicated surgery. That tells me that even my doctor was not qualified to dose me out. So I really want to know how Murray got it and had it lying around where MJ could supposedly drink it.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Ol' Cranky. Anesthesia, in a private home, without proper electronic OR physician monitoring. That is a recipe for killing the patient.
ReplyDeleteThe addict CANNOT force a doctor to give him ANYTHING, let alone propofol. The only twist on Conrad's arm was $$$. Gross Medical negligence that leads to death is manslaughter at least.
Sure MJ was an addict but who gave him the drug in the first place and why?
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about it but it sounds like it puts you out for surgery and having had a few surgeries (foot, wisdom teeth, etc) where I was given something that left me awake but I cannot recall a thing (sounds like milk of amnesia but I never asked) and I never desired the drug nor was I offered the drug again.
So WHY was he given this drug like a previous poster stated, outside a hospital, and not during a surgery?
I blame the Dr that first gave it to MJ since that Dr knew the consequences of giving it to outside surgery and though MJ became an addict he was so screwed up and seemingly clueless about certain things he probably is one of those people that blindly trust anyone with a medical lisence.
This guy still has a license?? Scary!
ReplyDeleteWhile MJ is responsible for his own actions, the Dr is responsible for his actions as well - and as a Dr he is held to a higher duty of care.
ReplyDeleteHe knew it was risky administering this particular drug, outside of a hospital, to a known addict.
He absolutely deserves to have his license pulled AND I don't see how this doesn't qualify as manslaughter. The death of the patient was a direct result, albeit unintentional, of the Dr administering the drug. Period.
If he had gotten drunk, driven a car, and unintentionally killed someone , it would be manslaughter.