Chug it!
It interests me for a couple reasons - first, it involves a drug that I have personally administered hundreds of times in my nursing career, propofol.
But mainly because it involves the unusual and tragic death of the greatest entertainer of my lifetime - and perhaps of all time. Yes, that's how I feel about Michael Jackson. I admit that I probably wouldn't feel this way if I hadn't seen him live in concert, but I did on Friday evening, May 6, 1988. I entered the Met Center as a curious observer and I left a convert. I've seen everyone from Kiss to the Rolling Stones to Paul McCartney to Elton John and only Kiss has come even remotely close to the kind of show Jackson put on.
That's not to say I don't think Jackson was
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| A video still of the opening of the Bad Tour concert. As the PA thundered with a low synthesized note, which made your clothes shake, the bank of lights lowered into the stage floor, behind which stood Michael Jackson who was suddenly flooded in blinding spotlights. At the risk of sounding sacrilege, it was sort of like the entrance of God. The show hadn't even started and I vividly remember saying to myself, "Wow!" (and I didn't consider myself fan just five minutes earlier). |
Anyway, I digress, as I normally do...
I thought it was really pretty sad when earlier this week Conrad Murray's defense lawyers contended that Michael Jackson killed himself by drinking propofol after Murray left his room. I think that notion is absolutely ridiculous.
Murray's story is he gave Jackson 25 mg of propofol intravenously to induce sleep. Once Jackson appeared to be asleep, he stepped out of his bedroom for "just a couple of minutes" to use the restroom and to call one of the several whores that he, Murray, employed on a regular basis.
When he came back, Jackson wasn't breathing. Twenty minutes later, after asking if anyone knew CPR, and calling several of Jackson's assistants, the good doctor finally summoned paramedics, who, after arriving, advised the emergency room doctor that the patient was dead at the scene. Murray insisted that heroic measures be taken... and we know the rest of the story.
Now, when you administer propofol to a patient, the effect of the drug is fairly quick. The patient is rendered unconscious in a couple of minutes. The drug also has a very short half life, which means it is metabolized quickly from the body. Within 10 minutes or so, the patient will wake up, unless a maintenance dose is continuously administered.
So Murray's defense contends in the "couple of minutes" he left Jackson's side, Jackson woke up, got his wits about him, grabbed a bottle of propofol and chugged it down.
First of all, I don't know if propofol is even digestible. It is designed to be taken intravenously, not orally - but let's say it could be digested, and Jackson didn't puke it all back up immediately after drinking it (I'm sure it tastes wonderful and is easy on the stomach - NOT!), the drug would not take effect in a "couple of minutes," as it does intravenously. It would take time to absorb into the digestive tract as it made its way to the small intestine, perhaps as long as twenty minutes.
Secondly, why would Jackson drink the drug when he obviously had an IV line established?
Fortunately, all of this was shot down in minutes by the lead pathologist who concluded there was nothing in Jacksons' mouth, esophagus and stomach to suggest he drank propofol.
This is simply a desperate man looking for a desperate defense and what better approach than to blame the victim who was dead and couldn't be questioned?
Yet I've got a strange feeling that Conrad Murray is going to be found not guilty of manslaughter, despite the fact that he was grossly negligent as a medical practitioner (because he most definitely was). Murray's defense lawyers have already punched holes in the prosecution, which point out "big mistakes" made by the coroner's office while collecting evidence during the investigation.
That's the our justice system. Guilt or innocence is not the issue; technicalities are how cases are won.
And lost.
