Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

Mystery deepens, Jackson's doctor goes missing

June 27, 2009 01:30 IST

Amid growing speculation over the cause of Michael Jackson's death, a doctor who lived with the 'king of pop' has gone missing, a report said today.

While the autopsy report of Jackson is still awaited, people close to him have claimed that his dependency on prescription drugs, encouraged by "enablers", led to his sudden death due to suspected cardiac arrest.

Jackson, 50, christened 'Wacko Jacko' for his bizarre lifestyle, sex scandals and numerous plastic surgeries, died last night after collapsing at his Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles.

"We've learned law enforcement is looking for a doctor who lived at Michael Jackson's home -- and the doctor is nowhere to be found," gossip website TMZ reported.

"Law-enforcement sources tell us a BMW belonging to the doctor was towed from Jackson's home last night," it said, adding "the cops are looking to interview the doctor."

The website, quoting law-enforcement source, said "the doctor gave Jackson an injection before he died".

Jackson reportedly may have OD'd on Demerol. "As we first reported, family members were concerned that Jackson was taking too much morphine," it said.

Brian Oxman, attorney and spokesman of the late singer, told 'CNN' that there were "enablers" in the star's entourage, who pressurized the singer to perform and pushed him towards prescription drugs.

"I believe (his manager) Frank DiLeo was with him at the time (of his heart attack), that is what I have been told. This family has been trying for months and months and months to take care of Michael Jackson," said Oxman.

"The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him. If you think the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse,
that is nothing compared to what has taken place in the life of Michael Jackson," Oxman added hinting at the role of the
coterie that surrounded Jackson during his last days.

"I do not know what medications he was taking, but the reports that we have received within the family are that they were extensive. I do not know the cause of it. But it is something that I feared. This is a case of abuse of medications, unless the cause is something else," Oxman said.

The singer, who had a history of addiction to pain killers, was reportedly on a number of prescribed drugs to combat injuries suffered during his training for the comeback.

"When you warn people that this is what's going to happen and then it happens, where there's smoke there's fire," Oxman added.

According to US magazine 'Life & Style', the singer had been popping pills, including anti-anxiety drugs Xanax and Zoloft and painkiller Demerol, for weeks before his death and that an overdose had caused respiratory and cardiac arrest.

Meanwhile British tabloid Sun quoted a Jackson aide who said, "Shortly after taking the Demerol he started to experience slow shallow breathing. His breathing gradually got slower and slower until it stopped."

Jackson, who was reportedly under huge debt, was hoping a turn of fortune with the success of his 'This Is It' concert series but had expressed his discomfort over the extended dates of the show, which was increased from 10 to 50.

© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.