Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Cardiologist Who Did Not Know CPR

As the evidentiary hearing for Dr. Conrad Murray in the Michael Jackson case continues, we are hearing more sordid details about what happened in the minutes after the singer died. We are learning that the doctor delayed calling 911 after discovering the unresponsive body in the bedroom. According to phone records, Dr. Murray did not call 911 for anywhere from 9 to 21 minutes after he stopped talking on his cell phone while Mr. Jackson lay dying in bed from propofol induced apnea.

Dr. Murray then called the security guards to the room and asked them how to perform CPR! I guess he hasn't gone to an ACLS class in quite some time. The guards just looked at each other with incredulity. He then attempted to perform CPR by, as one guard described it, using only one hand while using the other hand to balance himself on the soft bed. Meanwhile the children were standing in the doorway of the bedroom watching the whole episode. He then lied to Mr. Jackson's kids by saying he had a allergic reaction to the medicines, asking them for a list of Michael's allergies, which surprisingly they were able to recite to him.

Before the paramedics arrived, he ordered the guards to clean up all the bottles of drugs laying around the bedroom and in particular some special "cream" that he said Michael would not want the world to know about. Once the paramedics came, he continued his story about a drug allergy causing Michael's unresponsiveness without ever mentioning that he was given propofol.  He went with the ambulance to UCLA but did not stick around long enough for the emergency doctors to question him about Michael's medical history. He did not reappear for two days until he had a chance to speak with his lawyer. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

The defense attorneys are now saying that maybe Michael killed himself. There are reports that two syringes of propofol were found next to the bed. One was given by Dr. Murray and the other one supposedly has an unidentified fingerprint on it. They theorize that perhaps Michael woke up while Dr. Murray was gabbing on the phone in another room and injected himself with the propofol in the other syringe. It's always so much easier to blame the dead who can't defend themselves. This does not excuse Dr. Murray from negligence in pushing an anesthetic that should not have been given outside a medical facility in the first place then promptly walking away while his patient was unmonitored. Then this "doctor" didn't even know how to perform life saving resuscitation on his own patient. Did he think he was just going to collect $150,000 a month from Mr. Jackson by doing nothing except pushing propofol every day into the singer's veins? This needless death gets more tragic with every shred of evidence presented.

1 comment:

  1. I got your blog while searching for ACLS related articles. Its really very informative and very well crafted.