Michael Jackson, back in the news.

This afternoon, CNN reported that Michael Jackson died of a propofol overdose. Taken directly from that article, here are the doses administered to Jackson during those final hours:

-- At about 1:30 a.m., Murray gave Jackson 10 mg of Valium.

-- At about 2 a.m., he injected Jackson with 2 mg of the anti-anxiety drug Ativan.

-- At about 3 a.m., Murray then administered 2 mg of the sedative Versed.

-- At about 5 a.m., he administered another 2 mg of Ativan.

-- At about 7:30 a.m., Murray gave Jackson yet another 2 mg of Versed while monitoring him with a device that measured the oxygen saturation of a his blood.

-- At about 10:40 a.m., "after repeated demands/requests from Jackson," Murray administered 25 mg of propofol.

If this isn't gross negligence, I don't know what is. Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor, administered the doses himself. Now, being a doctor, he should've recognized that all of these are dangerous doses and that a "normal" person wouldn't have been able to survive even 1/5th of these. Regardless- if Jackson, as reported, was receiving prescriptions from multiple doctors, then shame on them as well. However, if Dr. Murray was Jackson's personal physician, he had a RESPONSIBILITY to insure Jackson's health. I hope, at the very least, that his license to practice is pulled, and at the most, he and the other prescribing doctors are charged with gross negligence, if not homicide. If the doctors knew this was going on, they should've done something, like refuse to prescribe or practice with Jackson. A gross abuse of power and money seems to be the what's behind this.

The power, apparently, laid in Jackson's hands, as he requested that Dr. Murray give him the injection. Murray, however, HAS a conscious. He should've been aware of the problem- and yet, he refused to do anything about it. A shame. Enabling behavior by family, staff, and healthcare providers contributed to the loss of yet another life.

In other news, it appears as though Miami Heat forward Michael Beasley has entered drug rehab.Beasley was fined $50,000 by the NBA last September after security officers at the league's rookie symposium detected the scent of marijuana in his hotel room. Too bad it took some consequences to get him in the doors, but we are glad he's getting the help he needs. As I touched on a couple of weeks ago, drug use is becoming more and more of a prevalent story. We can only hope that this awareness leads to more people seeking the help that they need.

Here's a video of Dr. Sanjay Gupta talking about the effects of Propofol:



Here's something funny.

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