83 Minutes by Matt Richards

Author:Matt Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250108937
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

10

When people grow up they forget the way.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

At 1:14pm, the gurney carrying the body of Michael Jackson was rushed into the ER of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The team of 14 doctors and nurses in the ER were prepared for his arrival, and were waiting to jump into action, but none of them knew that the patient they were about to receive was Michael Jackson.

Firefighter-Paramedic Richard Senneff helped to push the gurney directly into the ER as he informed the team of respiratory therapy medics, EKG staff and x-ray technicians of the protocols his team had already carried out on location and in the ambulance on the journey to UCLA. Once the gurney was in place in the ER, Senneff’s duty was done. He went off for a debriefing with his chief and then dedicated his time to getting the ambulance ready for his next call, which came around 6:00pm that day.

As the gurney was rolled past her, Dr Richelle Cooper was introduced to Dr Murray. Dr Cooper was aware that the patient had a personal physician present at the scene of the initial cardiac arrest, as she had been the person at UCLA who had handed care of the patient over to Murray at 12:57pm when she had given authorisation for the pronouncement of death. Now, for the first time, Dr Cooper and Dr Murray came face-to-face.

While Jackson was being put on a monitor in the ER and initial drugs were being administered and began circulating round his body, Cooper asked Murray to explain what had happened. He reported to her that Jackson had been in his usual state of health and had not been ill, but had been working very hard. He stated that he thought Jackson may be dehydrated and that he had also had trouble sleeping so he had given the singer 2mg of Lorazepam through an IV.

Like Paramedic Senneff before her, Cooper questioned Murray what medications the patient was on and what had been administered. She asked again and again. All Dr Murray told her was that he had given Jackson 2mg of Lorazepam at some point in the morning and had later on given another 2mg of the same drug before he witnessed the patient arrest.1 Cooper immediately assumed that, by saying he ‘witnessed the arrest’, Dr Murray must have watched Jackson die in front of him: ‘If I was in a room with a patient and the patient’s eyes rolled back, he stopped breathing and didn’t feel a pulse, I would report that while I was in the room I witnessed an arrest. I’m not sure if you would call that art of medicine. That is what I would take as witnessing the arresting in the room at the time,’ she testified later.

Meanwhile, outside the hospital, rumours were beginning to circulate about Jackson’s well-being, especially on the internet. The USA celebrity website, TMZ.com2 posted a short story suggesting that Jackson had been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital having suffered a cardiac arrest which had been treated with CPR by paramedics.

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