Re: Michael Jackson still making headlines
I was reading the same thing on Yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090824/ap_en_ot/us_michael_jackson_investigation
According to the document, Murray said he'd been treating Jackson for insomnia for about six weeks with 50 mg of propofol every night via an intravenous drip. But he said he feared Jackson was forming an addiction to the anesthetic, which is normally used in hospitals only, and was attempting to wean his patient by lowering the dose to 25 mg and adding the sedatives lorazepam and midazolam.
That combination succeeded in helping Jackson sleep two days prior to his death, so the next day, Murray told detectives he cut off the propofol — and Jackson fell asleep with just the two sedatives.
Then around 1:30 a.m. on June 25, starting with a 10-milligram tab of Valium, Murray said he tried a series of drugs instead of propofol to make Jackson sleep. The injections included two milligrams of lorazepam around 2 a.m., two milligrams of midazolam around 3 a.m., and repeats of each at 5 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. respectively.
But they didn't work.
Murray told detectives that around 10:40 a.m. he gave in to Jackson's "repeated demands/requests" for propofol, which the singer referred to as his "milk." He administered 25 milligrams of the white-colored liquid, — a relatively small dose — and finally, Jackson fell asleep.
Murray remained with the sedated Jackson for about 10 minutes, then left for the bathroom. No more than two minutes later, he returned — and found Jackson had stopped breathing.
"There's no surprise there" that death could result from such a combination, said Dr. David Zvara, anesthesia chairman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"All those drugs act in synergy with each other," Zvara said. Adding propofol on top of all the other sedatives "tipped the balance."
Besides the propofol and two sedatives, the coroner's toxicology report found other substances in Jackson's system but they were not believed to have been a factor in the singer's death, the official told the AP.
When he died, Jackson was skinny but not overly emaciated, and his body had bed sores, the official said. The singer is believed to have developed bed sores in the months following his 2005 acquittal of child molestation charges, when he went into seclusion and spent long stretches in bed.
The 25 milligrams of propofol Murray told police he gave Jackson the day he died "is not a whopping amount," said Lee Cantrell, director of the San Diego division of the California Poison Control System. But by combining propofol with a cocktail of the other sedatives, known as benzodiazepines, it "may have been the trigger that pushed him over the edge," Cantrell said.
Cantrell said it's perplexing that someone would give various benzodiazepines if one was found not to be effective.
"This is horrible polypharmacy," he said, referring to the interaction between the various drugs. "No one will treat an insomniac like this."
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Reading the report of the various drugs administered to Michael Jackson reminded me of the so-called "cocktail" of drugs that killed Heath Ledger.
Drug cocktail killed Heath Ledger
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgDNcFSJ5vHeEZXDWu0LGcC3BMkg
None of the drugs would have been harmful if they had been administered by themselves.
It was the combinations that killed both these entertainers. It seems that "Dr." Murray didn't learn anything from the death of Heath Ledger.
