A bodyguard testifies Dr. Conrad Murray asked him to collect medical vials and an IV bag in Michael Jackson's room before calling 911. A paramedic testifies that Murray did not mention giving the singer propofol.
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Michael Jackson doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, looks on during
his arraignment at the Los Angeles Superior Court on February 8, 2010. |
Los Angeles Times: Michael Jackson's doctor ordered a security guard to remove an IV bag apparently containing the anesthetic propofol from the stricken pop star's bedside and then told arriving paramedics he had administered only a mild anti-anxiety drug, witnesses testified Wednesday.
The guard, Alberto Alvarez, told a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge deciding whether Dr. Conrad Murrayshould be tried for involuntary manslaughter that before instructing him to call 911, the physician told Alvarez to gather up medical paraphernalia, including vials and an IV bag containing "a milk-like substance."
Propofol, the surgical drug that coroner's officials said caused Jackson's death, is an opaque white liquid sometimes called "milk of amnesia." It is at the center of the case against Murray, a 57-year-old cardiologist. The doctor acknowledged to police two days after Jackson's death that he had administered propofol to help Jackson, a chronic insomniac, fall sleep.
The testimony on the second day of the preliminary hearing concerned what Murray said — and didn't say — in the moments after Jackson stopped breathing. The first paramedic on the scene said Murray mentioned nothing about propofol, claimed his patient's only ailment was "dehydration" and understated significantly how long it had been since Jackson had stopped breathing.
"It just didn't add up," Richard Senneff, an L.A. Fire Department paramedic, said repeatedly.
From Alvarez, Judge Michael Pastor got the closest look yet at Murray's behavior after Jackson went into respiratory arrest in a bedroom of his rented Holmby Hills mansion.
