Paramedics and an emergency room doctor who responded to a lifeless Michael Jackson said today the singer's doctor, Conrad Murray, did not tell them that Jackson was taking the powerful anesthetic propofol to sleep and instead said he was treating Jackson for dehydration.
Conrad Murray, on trial for involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of Jackson, told emergency room physician Richelle Cooper that he was treating the singer for dehydration and that Jackson had no history of health problems.
"I asked what happened," said Cooper of the moment when a clinically dead Jackson was wheeled into the UCLA emergency room on June 25, 2009.
"I was told that Mr. Jackson had been working very long hours and Dr. Murray thought he had been dehydrated and that he had given the patient an IV and administered 2 mg of lorazepam and later gave him [another] 2 mg and observed the patient to [cardiac] arrest," she said.
Murray's defense team now admits that Murray gave Jackson 25 mg of the creamy anesthetic propofol but argues that Jackson himself took an additional dose of propofol and a sedative without his doctor's knowledge, leading to his death. Propofol is typically administered in a hospital setting.
Murray told Cooper that the only medications that Jackson took regularly were valium, an anti-anxiety medication, and Flomax, which is used to treat an enlarged prostate or someone suffering from a kidney stone.
By the time Jackson reached the emergency room, he had been in cardiac arrest for at least 40 minutes and Cooper could find no pulse, all signs of a "dying heart," she said. Paramedics testified that Jackson appeared dead when they reached the home, indicating he could have been in cardiac arrest for a period of time before the 911 call was made by a Jackson bodyguard.
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Watch Video Cooper had given paramedic Richard Senneff the OK to declare Jackson dead back at the singer's rented mansion, but Murray insisted that paramedics administer another medicine to Jackson to try and bring him back to life. That led to Jackson's trip to UCLA Medical Center where he would ultimately be declared dead.
Senneff, a Los Angeles firefighter and paramedic, said that he and his team received the 911 call at 12:22 p.m. and arrived at the rented mansion in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Bel Air, Calif., at 12:26 p.m.
He said that he and his team never found any sign of life in the King of Pop.
"When I first moved the patient, his skin was very cool to the touch," Senneff said. "When I took a first glance at him, his eyes were open, they were dry and his pupils were dilated. When I hooked up the EKG machine, it was flatline consistently."
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The paramedic said that Murray and a bodyguard were in the process of moving Jackson from his bed to the floor when he arrived. Jackson, wearing pajamas, appeared so thin that his ribs were visible, Senneff told jurors.
Senneff immediately approached Murray, asking him a barrage of questions about his patient. Jackson appeared so ill that he looked like a patient suffering from a chronic illness, Senneff said.
"I said, 'Is there a DNR [do not resuscitate order], and he just looked at me," Senneff said. "I repeated the question and he said, 'No, no, there's nothing. No.'"
Senneff and his team began hooking Jackson up to an EKG machine, intubating him and giving him rounds of drugs to start his heart. None of it worked.
At one point, Murray told paramedics that he could feel a pulse in Jackson's right groin. Senneff said he and his team could not find a pulse on Jackson and that his cardiac rhythm was a "clean flatline."
Senneff repeatedly asked Murray about Jackson's medical history and what medications he was taking.
"I asked what his underlying health condition was. He [Conrad Murray] did not respond. ... I asked again. ... He did not respond…The third time he said nothing, nothing, he has nothing," Senneff said. "Simply, that did not add up to me."
"I see an underweight patient, I see an IV here and I see medication vials on the nightstand," he said.
Senneff said that it appeared Jackson had been in cardiac arrest longer than the five minutes it took for paramedics to arrive after 911 was called.
Senneff and the UCLA Medical Center were prepared to declare Jackson dead at 12:57 p.m., but Murray insisted the he be taken to the hospital and efforts to revive him continue.
Senneff said that after Jackson had been taken down the stairs on a gurney and placed into an ambulance, he returned to Jackson's bedroom to retrieve his team's items.
