How sad is this...
A LAWYER for the doctor who was with Michael Jackson when he died says the physician found the entertainer in his bed with a faint pulse.
Houston attorney Edward Chernoff says in an interview yesterday with The Associated Press that Dr Conrad Murray went into Jackson's bedroom and saw that he wasn't breathing.
Chernoff says Jackson was still warm and had a faint pulse and that the doctor immediately began administering CPR.
The lawyer's statement counters claims Dr Murray was with the singer when he collapsed, in front of Jackson's eldest son, who thought his father was joking around - but soon stood "in a trance" as the King of Pop's personal doctor frantically tried to revive him, a family confidant told the New York Post.
"The horror of it all is that Prince thought his dad was just being his dad and clowning, but it was real, and he watched as they worked on him," said Stacy Brown, a Jackson family biographer who has spoken extensively to relatives since he died.
"Prince was stunned - in a trance - just watching," Brown said. "There was no movement, just looking around and not really processing what was really happening."
Brown said he was told that when Jackson went into cardiac arrest, he was in the living room of the $100,000-per-month Los Angeles rental with the 12-year-old boy - whose full name is "Prince" Michael Joseph Jackson Jr.
Also there were the pop star's personal physician, Dr Conrad Murray, his long-time friend and one-time manager, Frank DiLeo, and a security guard named Tippy.
That morning, Jackson had been packing up his things in preparation to go to London for an upcoming series of 50 concerts there.
At around 11.30am, Michael was given a shot of Demerol and soon collapsed on the living-room floor, Brown said.
"The guard and the doctor picked him up and put him on the bed from the living room, and that's when they started CPR," he said.
"The doctor said he was 'very pale and cold to the touch,' " he added, citing what he was told by relatives.
As Murray worked on Jackson, Tippy first reached out for the pop singer's father, Joseph, in Las Vegas, to tell him something was wrong.
"Joseph screamed at them to call for help," he said.
"A huge commotion ensued about why 911 wasn't being called and why he wasn't getting help."
Brown says Tippy then called 911. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the call was received at 12.21pm local time.
Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, where doctors shocked his heart and inserted a breathing tube to try to revive him, but were unsuccessful. He was declared dead at 2.26pm West Coast time.
Chernoff says Murray suggested to Jackson's family that an autopsy be performed.
He adds that the doctor did not prescribe or give Jackson the drugs Demerol or Oxycontin.
The lawyer says any drugs Murray prescribed were given in response to a specific complaint from the 50-year-old entertainer
Prince was picked up from the house by a Jackson cousin and taken to the hospital where his grandmother, Katherine, met him.
Jackson's other children - Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11, and Prince Michael "Blanket" Jackson II, 7 - were home at the time of his collapse, but did not see their father die.
They were taken to the grandparents' compound in Encino, Calif.
Murray met with police late yesterday. DiLeo did not answer repeated phone calls to his cellphone and his voicemail box was full.
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