withlove_jeanie (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} withlove_jeanie) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2009-07-04 11:54:00 |
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| Entry tags: | michael jackson / jackson family |
INVESTIGATION FOCUSES ON MULTIPLE DOCTORS
Michael Jackson investigation focuses on doctors
Investigators are focusing on at least five doctors who prescribed drugs to Michael Jackson as they try to unravel the circumstances surrounding the pop star’s death, according to law enforcement sources.Authorities removed drugs and other medical evidence from the Holmby Hills mansion where Jackson died and are trying to determine whether the medications were properly prescribed and whether they played any role in his death.
Some of the prescriptions were made out to Jackson's pseudonyms, and in some cases the drugs had no prescription labels on the bottles, the sources told The Times.
One of the most tantalizing clues so far is the discovery of what one source described as “numerous bottles” of the powerful sedative Diprivan at the home. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was an ongoing investigation, said some of the bottles were full and others were empty.
None had prescription labels, and investigators are trying to determine how Jackson got the drugs.
Diprivan is an extremely potent drug that is supposed to be administered by an anesthesiologist, typically in a hospital. Experts expressed alarm that it would be used at a private home.
“It’s a very dangerous drug if self-administered or administered by someone not trained in airway management and cardiac life support,” said Ethan Bryson, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “You need to have someone who knows what they are doing when they administer it.”
Diprivan, the market name for propofol, is one of the most widely used IV drugs for general anesthesia. The product label from the Food and Drug Administration says a patient being given the drug should be monitored at all times for early signs of abnormally low blood pressure, low oxygen levels and stopped breathing. Problems with the heart or breathing are more likely to occur following rapid administration of the drug. The label states that equipment to provide artificial ventilation, supplemental oxygen and CPR “must be immediately available.”
It’s unclear whether any of this equipment was found at Jackson’s home.
Abuse of Diprivan is a growing problem, said Paul Wischmeyer, an anesthesiologist at the University of Colorado. Wischmeyer coauthored a 2007 study of Diprivan abuse in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia. The study found that in an e-mail survey of 126 academic anesthesiology training programs nationwide, 18% of departments reported one or more incidents of propofol abuse in the previous 10 years. Of the 25 individuals who abused propofol, seven died as a result of the abuse, including six who were residents, according to the study.
“A lot of people do it because it makes you completely blotto. It totally takes away all anxiety, all fear,” he said. “It’s incredibly relieving of pain anxiety and stress. People do it to escape.”
He said he has seen people take the drug to relieve anxiety -- and that many people he has interviewed at rehab centers who are trying to kick an addiction to propofol “experienced trauma earlier in their life, and are using it to escape.”
It remains unknown whether prescription drugs played any role in Jackson’s death. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office is awaiting the results of toxicology tests before listing a cause of death. The coroner and the Los Angeles Police Department are being aided in their probe by the Drug Enforcement Administration and California attorney general’s office.
Both agencies have expertise in investigating doctors suspect of improperly prescribing drugs. The attorney general’s office investigated two doctors who were charged this year with repeatedly supplying model Anna Nicole Smith with addictive prescription drugs in the years before she died.
The DEA is expected to investigate whether doctors who prescribed medication to Jackson had a “face to face” relationship with the singer and provided a proper diagnosis, which is required by law.
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Michael Jackson Remembered As Loving, Attentive Father
NEW YORK — When Rabbi Shmuley Boteach brought his children to play with Michael Jackson's kids at Neverland Ranch some eight years ago, the rabbi's youngsters naturally made a beeline for the fabulous rides _ the Ferris wheel, the roller coaster, the bumper cars.But when Jackson's own kids asked to go on the rides, he gently reminded them of the family rules, according to Boteach: The rides were only for birthdays or special occasions. "He was very concerned that the kids grow up with the right values," says Boteach, Jackson's former friend and spiritual adviser.
They are the children of one of the most famous men to have walked the planet. But unlike other children of mega-celebrities, whose faces are recognizable around the world, those of Jackson's three kids _ 12-year-old Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael; 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine; and 7-year-old Prince Michael II, known as Blanket _ are barely known.
Home-schooled and often isolated in mansions or hotels, the children have appeared only in rare paparazzi shots, their faces usually covered by scarves or brightly colored masks.
That fact alone _ that Jackson sought to hide his children's faces _ would seem to speak of a dark, strange life. But those who've witnessed the family up close paint a brighter picture: a trio of engaging, intelligent, well-adjusted youngsters who adored their father. A father who, despite his eccentricities and the terrible controversy that surrounded him in later life, lived for his children and tried to make their lives as normal as _ well, as normal as Michael Jackson could.
"To the extent that Michael Jackson's kids COULD have a normal life, he wanted them to have it," says Boteach, who eventually fell out with Jackson.
"Listen, I'm not here to whitewash the sins of Michael Jackson _ he was accused of some abominable things," says the rabbi, referring to the pop star's trial and acquittal on molestation charges. "But when it came to being a father, there was much to admire."
Dr. Tohme Tohme, a close friend and adviser to Jackson over the last year of his life, said he had "never seen a better father."
"He was the father and the mother," Tohme said. "He washed them and dressed them. I'm a father but I'm not sure I could do what he was doing with his children. They loved him so much."
Of course, even Jackson's closest friends are at a loss to explain what for many is the single most memorable image of Jackson as a father: the shocking moment when he dangled Blanket, then an infant, over a hotel balcony in Berlin, showing the baby off to fans with a delighted grin.
"What made that incident so inexplicable was that he was an OVER-protective father," Boteach says.
Others who've been close to Jackson in the past agree. When the children stayed in hotels, says one photographer who spent several years working for Jackson, his handlers had long lists of all the foods the children could and could not eat. He was afraid of allergies but also poisoning, says the photographer, Ian Barkley. At the ranch, Jackson would not let the children roam far for fear of coyotes, he says.
When Barkley spoke to the kids himself, he was impressed. "Paris and (the older) Prince really blew me away with how smart they were. They were really well-mannered and nice." And Jackson made sure they kept up with their studies. "Once I heard him ask the nanny if the kids had done their homework that day, and they hadn't yet and he was really not happy."
Yet Jackson also indulged his children in extravagances _ he was known to rent out entire movie theaters so he and his kids could see a first-run movie in peace, said close friend Uri Geller, the entertainer, who accompanied the family on one such outing.
"The times I've seen Michael with his kids, he was simply a great father," says Geller. "When I saw him alone in London, the first thing he said is how much he missed them. I know he loved them, and they loved him."
US Weekly editor Janice Min, whose magazine reported on Jackson's children this week, was surprised to discover how positive an outlook many Jackson associates had on the kids and their lives. "I would have thought it was a very gloom-and-doom picture, but across the board, everyone talked about these nice and seemingly normal kids," she says.
Still, for many people, the hardest thing to get past about Jackson's parenting style was those facial disguises. Geller, for one, is convinced the family saw it as a game. "It was a private joke on the media between Michael and the kids _ the kids loved it," Geller says. "That's what Michael told me."
But others speak of more serious reasons. Stacy Brown, a former Jackson family confidant who fell out with the family at the time of the 2005 molestation trial _ he was a prosecution witness _ says Michael was truly afraid of kidnapping. But also, Brown notes, there was a strategy: If the kids wore masks when they were with Jackson, they could go safely unmasked when they weren't with him.
Still, says Brown, who co-wrote "The Man Behind the Mask," a Jackson biography, "mentally, it was just not right. Why put a mask on these beautiful children?"
There may be another, more poignant reason. "He detested the media interest in whether he looked like his children," says Boteach, the rabbi. "I think that was another concern. Those rumors were hurtful to them."
Such discussion has only increased since Jackson's death, as the world wonders not only who will get custody of the children but also whether Jackson is their biological father. Jackson's ex-wife, Deborah Rowe, the mother of the two older children, says the children were conceived by artificial insemination. The surrogate mother of the youngest has not been revealed.
For now, Rowe is weighing whether to seek custody of her two children, while Katherine Jackson, the singer's 79-year-old mother, has temporary guardianship of all three. Jackson's will asks that permanent custody go to his mother.
Brown, the biographer, recalls running into Jackson and the kids in a town near Neverland shortly before the trial.
"They were the most well-behaved, well-mannered, immaculately groomed children," Brown says. "It was all 'please' and 'thank you,' and 'excuse me.' Little Blanket was wearing a kilt, and Prince a three-piece suit, and Paris a white dress with blue flowers. We chatted. I'm telling you, the guy was tremendous with those kids."
Whatever happens, Boteach says, it was Jackson's greatest wish that his children know how much he loved them.
"Michael often said he knew that when the kids grew up, they'd be asked by biographers what kind of father he was," Boteach says. "He wanted the kids to know that he always put them first."
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MODS: new articles from today with NEW info i promise!
to those that think there are too many MJ posts ...
I counted x:
For July 3 ...
81 Non MJ posts
15 MJ posts
we just miss him...
be nice ... for all you know MJ is sitting in traffic next to you dancing to r.kelly's ignition
