LOS ANGELES: One day after Michael Jackson’s sudden death, speculation turned to what killed the 50-year-old King of Pop on the cusp of a long-awaited comeback concert series.
A family attorney said yesterday he had been concerned that Jackson’s use of prescription drugs for dancing-related injuries would eventually prove fatal and that the entertainer’s inner circle had ignored his warnings.
A Jackson family member told celebrity website TMZ.com the singer had been given an injection of the painkiller Demerol before he went into full cardiac arrest at his rental home around midday on Thursday. TMZ soon after broke the news that Jackson had died at a Los Angeles hospital.
Attorney Brian Oxman said he and family members voiced concerns over the star’s use of drugs as he prepared for a grueling series of comeback concerts in London designed to relaunch his career.
“I know Jackson was rehearsing and working extremely hard to get in shape in order to perform in London,” Oxman told ABC television’s Good Morning America.
“He was taking it seriously and I think he was in discomfort because he was working so very hard. The family tried many times, and I spoke to family members and I said to them ‘If this situation arises where Jackson perishes because of medications — if we one day wake up and he’s dead because of these medications I will not hold my tongue, I will speak out and I will speak out loud.
“I do not want to point fingers at anyone because I want to hear what the toxicology report says and the coroner says but the plain fact of the matter is that Michael Jackson had prescription drugs at his disposal at all times,” he said. Family members told TMZ the dosage was “too much.” TMZ reported that police were searching for Jackson’s physician. The Los Angeles Police Department would not immediately confirm the report.
