July 2, 2009

Was Michael Jackson Killed by a Sedative?

By James Montgomery (MTV.com)

Michael Jackson was not a druggie, though he repeatedly sought Diprivan from his registered nurse and nutritional counselor, Cherilyn Lee. Lee, who worked with Jackson in the build-up to his 50-date run at the London O2 arena, told the Associated Press that he suffered from terrible insomnia and constantly pleaded for the medication, despite her refusal to grant his requests.

"He wasn't looking to get high or feel good and sedated from drugs," she told the AP. "This was a person who was not on drugs. This was a person who was seeking help, desperately, to get some sleep, to get some rest."
Lee said that Jackson could possibly have obtained the drug from someone else. She said that she became worried when she received a 'frantic' phone call from a member of Jackson's staff four days before his death.

"He called and was very frantic and said, 'Michael needs to see you right away,' " Lee told the AP. "I said, 'What's wrong?' And I could hear Michael in the background [saying], 'One side of my body is hot, it's hot, and one side of my body is cold, it's very cold.'
"At that point, I knew that somebody had given him something that hit the central nervous system," she continued. "He was in trouble Sunday and he was crying out."

According to Jackson's family, he died of cardiac arrest. While autopsies have been conducted, a result is yet to be out on his official cause of death.

TMZ reported that Diprivan, was found at Jackson's house, along with another drug, Lidocaine, which is used to alleviate pain experienced when injecting Diprivan. An unnamed source on the website said that the drug was "inappropriate and reckless for home use" and asserted that the doctor who facilitated Jackson's obtainment of the drug should be persecuted for manslaughter.

According to a University of Chicago psychopharmacologist, Diprivan, also known as Propofol, has been implicated in drug use and even suicide. has a "very narrow therapeutic window," meaning that it doesn't take doses much larger than the medically recommended amount to stop a person's breathing.