Friday, October 21, 2011
Crazy!
Dr Steven Shafer continued to give evidence at the trail of Dr Conrad Muraay yesterday.
He told the court that Michael Jackson was so
heavily sedated shortly before he died, that he could not have
possibly self-administered an additional, lethal dose of propofol.
He dismissed suggestions by the defence that Jackson self administered the drug as "crazy".
Dr Shafer also suggested that Dr Murray gave Jackson 100ml of propofol, a much larger amount than the 25ml Dr Murray claims that he administered.
Quote:
"This fits all of the data in this case and I am not aware of a single piece of data that is inconsistent with this explanation."
The trial continues.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
"Clueless" in "Never-Never Land"
The trial of Dr Conrad Murray has resumed, and Dr Steven Shafer has returned to the witness box.
In Dr Shafer's view Dr Murray made 17 flagrant violations when administering propofol to Michael Jackson. Dr Shafer told the court that the drug should never be used to treat insomnia, and Dr Conrad Murray's negligence was directly responsible for Jackson's death.
He went on to castigate Dr Murray as being "clueless" about the drug.
Dr Shafer sated that Dr Murray did not know how to respond when Jackson stopped breathing, and was dumbfounded by the delay in calling 911:
"I almost don't know what to say. That is so completely and utterly inexcusable."
Wrt using propofol as a sleeping aid, Dr Shafer said caustically:
"We are in pharmacological never-never land here, something that was done to Michael Jackson and no one else in history to my knowledge..
A competent doctor would know you do not do this."
The trial continues.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Further Delay To Trial
The trial of Dr Conrad Murray has been put on
hold at least until Wednesday, in order to give defence council the time to study new lab
test results wrt the contents of Michael Jackson's stomach.
The prosecution contends that the results show that that Jackson did not orally ingest a fatal overdose of lorazepam (a sedative).
The Los Angeles County coroner tested Jackson's stomach contents for lorazepam last Wednesday, at the request of the prosecution.
The defence have contended that Jackson orally ingested 8 tablets on the day he died.
The trial will resume, at the earliest on Wednesday.
The prosecution contends that the results show that that Jackson did not orally ingest a fatal overdose of lorazepam (a sedative).
The Los Angeles County coroner tested Jackson's stomach contents for lorazepam last Wednesday, at the request of the prosecution.
The defence have contended that Jackson orally ingested 8 tablets on the day he died.
The trial will resume, at the earliest on Wednesday.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Trial Put On Hold
The trial of Dr Conrad Murray has been temporarily put on hold, following the death of a member of the family of Dr Stevan Shafer (a witness for the prosecution).
Judge Michael Pastor will meet with prosecutors and defence lawyers today, to discuss when to resume the trial.
Judge Michael Pastor will meet with prosecutors and defence lawyers today, to discuss when to resume the trial.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Recipe For Disaster
Dr Nader Kamangar, an intensive care doctor, has given testimony at the trial of Dr Conrad Murray. He stated that in his view Michael Jackson was receiving:
"very inappropriate therapy in the home setting, inappropriate sedatives...without appropriate monitoring by Dr Murray.
Ultimately this cocktail was a recipe for disaster in a patient that had underlying dehydration."
Dr Murray's defence lawyer, J Michael Flanagan, retorted that just because there was no record of Dr Murray charting Jackson's vital signs, that did not necessarily mean that Dr Murray did not obtain the information.
However, as Dr Kamangar noted:
"In medicine, it is essential, we cannot take care of patients if we store it in our minds, we have to document things. It allows us to take better care of patients."
The trial continues.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Six Extreme Deviations
Dr Alon Steinberg, a cardiologist, has given testimony at the trial of Dr Conrad Murray in which he claimed that Michael Jackson could still be alive if six 'extreme deviations' in his treatment had been avoided.
He went on to list six flaws in Conrad Murray's treatment.
Dr Murray, according to Dr Steinberg:
1 Should not have used Propofol.
2 Should not have given Jackson Propofol in a home without proper equipment, medical personnel or back-up.
3 Did not make sufficient preparations in case of an emergency.
4 Botched Jackson's care after his breathing stopped, 'inexcusably' giving CPR with one hand on a bed.
5 Took too long to call 911.
6 Failed to keep any medical records on Jackson to help treat him in an emergency.
The trial continues.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Jackson Healthier Than The Average Person
Dr Christopher Rogers, who conducted the autopsy on Michael Jackson, told the court hearing the trail of Dr Conrad Murray that Jackson was "healthier than the average person his age."
Dr Rogers was of the view that it was unreasonable that Jackson could have given himself a fatal dose of propofol. He went on to state that, in his view, Dr Murray overdosed Jackson when he incorrectly estimated how much of the drug he was giving him to induce sleep to fight insomnia.
The trial continues.
Dr Rogers was of the view that it was unreasonable that Jackson could have given himself a fatal dose of propofol. He went on to state that, in his view, Dr Murray overdosed Jackson when he incorrectly estimated how much of the drug he was giving him to induce sleep to fight insomnia.
The trial continues.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Friday, October 07, 2011
Riddled With Drugs
Dr Dan Anderson, the LA coroner's toxicologist, has testified at the trial of Dr Conrad Murray and stated that he detected significant amounts of the drugs propofol, lidocaine and lorazepam in Michael Jackson's body.
Dr Anderson took eight specimens, including samples from the heart,
liver, stomach and urine; all of which showed significant amounts of
sedatives and propofol.
However, the coroner's investigator Elissa Fleak (who went through Jackson's bedroom after his death) was savaged by Dr Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, who asked:
"Would you agree with me that you made a substantial number of mistakes in your investigation?''
Ms Fleak, whilst denying that, did admit to the fact that her original hand-written notes were destroyed when they were transferred into an official report (this being the norm).
Mr Chernoff questioned Ms Fleak on her assertion that a bottle of propofol was found inside an IV bag, because Ms Fleak admitted that in her original notes she did not mention finding the propofol bottle inside the IV bag.
However, she strenuously denied suggestions that she had changed her findings to make them fit in with another witness.
However, the coroner's investigator Elissa Fleak (who went through Jackson's bedroom after his death) was savaged by Dr Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, who asked:
"Would you agree with me that you made a substantial number of mistakes in your investigation?''
Ms Fleak, whilst denying that, did admit to the fact that her original hand-written notes were destroyed when they were transferred into an official report (this being the norm).
Mr Chernoff questioned Ms Fleak on her assertion that a bottle of propofol was found inside an IV bag, because Ms Fleak admitted that in her original notes she did not mention finding the propofol bottle inside the IV bag.
However, she strenuously denied suggestions that she had changed her findings to make them fit in with another witness.
Dr Murray's defence team claim that Jackson took the final extra, fatal dose of the drug once Dr Murray was out of the room.
The trial continues.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Michael Jackson's Phone Call
During yesterday's hearing, at the trial of Dr Conrad Murray, the court were played the full tape recording made by Dr Murray of Jackson's drug addled phone call to the doctor made on 10 May 2009.
The four minute audio recording was found on Dr Murray's mobile phone by Stephen Marx, a forensic digital expert.
Quite why Dr Murray made the recording is open to speculation.
Mr Marx testified that he retrieved another recording from Dr Murray's phone, along with other files that showed the doctor busy emailing, texting and dealing with messages about insurance for Jackson's concerts.
Why would a doctor be involved in administration tasks such as this?
The trial continues.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Four Gallons - "Maintaining My Instrument"
Nicole Alvarez, Dr Conrad Murray's girlfriend, has told the jury at the trial of Dr Murray that she received packages from a pharmacy (on behalf of Dr Murray) but that she did not know what they were.
Prosecutors told jurors last week that Murray received 255 propofol vials (4 gallons) at the apartment of Alvarez.
"I do remember receiving shipments ... every now and then." Alvarez (who does not come across as the "brightest pebble" on the beach) said.
Tim Lopez, the former owner of Applied Pharmacy in Las Vegas, told the court that he sent 255 vials of propofol by express delivery to the Santa Monica apartment after Murray told him it was the address for his medical office in California.
The prosecution also claim that Dr Murray called/texted various women (including Alvarez) in the short time leading up to Jackson's death and after it.
The trial continues.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Dead on Arrival
As the trial of Dr Conrad Murray resumed this week, Dr Richelle Cooper told jurors that Dr Murray never mentioned that he had given Michael Jackson propofol.
She went on to say that she never asked Dr Murray to sign a death certificate because Jackson, once inside Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, became her patient. She stated that despite giving paramedics permission to pronounce Jackson dead, Dr Murray wanted resuscitation efforts to continue.
Dr Thao Nguyen, the hospital cardiologist who was on call the day Jackson died, said that she had asked Dr Murray whether Jackson had any drugs in his system. Murray said that Jackson had been given lorazepam, but did not mention any other drugs.
Dr Nguyen said:
"I asked whether there were other narcotics or sedatives besides adovan [lorazepam] that was given.
Nothing else. In that idea, like no other drugs."
The trial continues.
The trial continues.
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