The Terrible Plight of Dr. Conrad Murray
Dr. Conrad Murray can't win. The Michael Jackson family through their surrogate Reverend Jesse Jackson hints that the doctor may have done something terribly wrong in the death of Jackson. Jackson fans were brutal. On the website vitals.com that rates physicians there were more than 100 comments (as of Saturday). The writers mostly railed against Murray as "Michael's Killer." What Murray did or didn't do in the tragic hours before the fateful 911 call that brought the paramedics rushing to Jackson's home is nothing but wild conjecture and speculation and grist for the tabloid mill.
Yet, that Murray finds himself on the medical and legal hot seat is no surprise. When things go wrong with their celebrity client-patients, doctors always feel the heat. Because invariably the things that go wrong deal with drug use, questionable medications and treatments that they allegedly give their ailing or troubled celebrity clients. The suspicion is always there that the doctors did something either negligent or unethical in catering to and indulging their clients real or imagined medical needs. The hunt to scapegoat the celebrity attendant doctor is then on with a vengeance. Their background, training, and experience are quickly called into question.
That's the case with Murray. His training at Meharry Medical College School of Medicine, one of the oldest and most renowned black medical training facilities in Nashville, Tennessee, his internships, his years of experience and work as a cardiologist are under an intense microscope. The tons of money that Murray racked up in unpaid bills, and the liens and pending suits to get the money back have been dredged up to paint Murray as a doctor with a checkered and shady history.
The glare, however, is even more intense on Murray's clinic, Global Cardiovascular Associates, main location in Las Vegas. In a call to the clinic, this writer was referred to a contact phone number to a doctor on call. The number was a pager beeper.
HealthGrades which rates America's physicians based on their training, experience, patient responses, and quality of care, did not give Global Cardiovascular Associates a glowing four star rating. In the crucial area of patient care, there were six patient responses. They rated Global Cardiovascular on ease of scheduling appointments, office environment, cleanliness and comfort, office staff friendliness, and most importantly the wait time before seeing a physician. Murray's three person staff rated only fair in the responses. Vitals. Inc. gave Global Cardiovascular a marginal rating on the critical areas of patient response time; follow up, and most importantly, accuracy of diagnosis. The clinic ranked below the national service average in a couple of these rated categories.
This is not damning proof that the clinic doses out substandard care, or is any way deficient in its medical practice. However, patients, medical rating boards and health care providers do place major emphasis on these as measures of patient care in decisions about the effectiveness and competence of physicians and their hospitals and clinics.
Even if Murray's clinic had received a world class four star rating from the rating physician services, Murray or any other doctor who attended Jackson would still raise eyebrows even if they did everything by the book. It comes with the turf.
Heart-related deaths account for more medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuits than for any other medical problem. One survey found that they account for thirty percent of all dollars shelled out by doctors and insurers to settle malpractice suits.
Malpractice awards for heart attack typically allege misdiagnosis or mismanaged diagnostic methods or medical tests. Because the outcome of a misdiagnosed heart attack is obviously poorer than a rapidly treated heart attack, the patient may suffer severe consequences. This is the prime reason that the dollar award for heart attack malpractice cases is almost always much higher than the average payout for other alleged medical screw-up cases.
It may be that Murray did not do anything wrong in how he handled Jackson. But that won't end things for Murray. He'll likely be slapped with a lawsuit, or even multiple lawsuits. That's been the lot of legions of other cardiologists. And possible lawsuits may be the least of his problems.
He will carry an even greater burden; and that's the burden of being the doctor who was there when Jackson died. And everyone expects that doctors are supposed to save lives and not raise suspicions that they did something to end a live. It's a terrible dilemma for any doctor. Dr. Murray is hardly the first to face it, but it's one he'll have to live with.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard weekly in Los Angeles Fridays on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and live streamed nationally on ktym.com
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Dr. Murray's presence at the time of Jackson's death is not mere coincidence. As happens with wealthy and powerful people, they have the ability to surround themselves with enablers in every phase of their life, including a doctor.
Unfortunately lawsuits are the only way of exposing any malfeasance by doctors, and gaining a remedy, since the medical associations and the AMA do a very poor job of it themselves.
If anyone is delusional enough to think that proceeding with a lawsuit is an easy undertaking, they are wrong.
For a physician to maintain a patient's addiction is against the law. If that is indeed what happened in this case, he should be prosecuted. His patient was obviously in poor health and the body can only take so many toxins before it shuts down.
Alas, like so many doctors who contributed to the death of a celebrity, or for that matter any other patient, the chances of prosecution are slim to none.
The Doctor is only facing these issues because the MEDIA, the me first MEDIA, decided to run with an unsubstantiated story, a mess of allegations, a perhaps this was what happened, all to get a STORY.
Not the NEWS - a STORY- otherwise known as a fabrication.
Once read by the MSM however, people believe it IS THE NEWS!
The media destroyed Michael Jackson's reputation even when vindicated in court...and even after his death had people trying to make him out to be a drugged semi criminal.
No doubt this can be true, but can we at least get the FACTS before speculating on the STORY?????????
could it be jackson had many doctors prescribing him junk?
Who prescribed Michael's medications? Who administered them? If Michael had a reaction to Demerol, which we don't know, why wasn't he given a narcotic atagonist? Why was Michael given CPR on the bed? I have a ton of questions. I'm sure they will all be answered.
Regardless of his guilt or innocence, Murray reacted selfishly and foolishly, practically guaranteeing that he will be sued by the family and hated by fans. Instead of running away and lawyering up he should have stayed at UCLA and made himself available to answer all the family's questions. This is not naive: studies have shown that this honest approach leads to the best possible outcome for everybody. Right now everything he's doing is just making a bad situation worse.
Maybe he road in the ambulance with Jackson to the hospital.
Excellent background research into Dr. Murray's clinic and history. However, one thing that just maddens me, is why a cardiologist would have tried CPR with the patient on a BED? even I know that to get the heart beating again, with chest compression, one needs a hard flat surface under the victim. And I am also very much in camp with the bmull post, that Dr. Murray's response was blatantly suspect. Refused to sign the death certificate, the aforementioned lousy resuscitation techniques and fleeing so fast he left his little sports car at the residence. Then vanished? Guilt-ridden behavior to say the least.
I can't help but see Dr. Murray, as Dr. Feelgood, who knew exactly what might, and did, happen. Murray was hired by the corporations backing Jackson's huge concert tour, so he walked into it, and right back out of it, with his eyes wide open. And I must ask, what are we doing to our "talented" these days? Corporations hiring docs for drug addicted singers, to in turn make money from concerts? leaching the talented? Big Time! or maybe we have always enabled the creative personality right into the grave?
If Dr. Murray is punished harshly, perhaps others will think twice before doing the same. No one can convince me that he didn't think about just such a possibility at least once or twice. He could have walked out while Jackson was still alive. My doc would have.
I've been told by someone who knows (who went through something like this) that compressions can be started on the bed, one hand under the body, the other hand compressing, then the body can be taken down to the floor for a firmer surface.
But it does not look good that he did not stay with Jackson, just does not look good at all.
Nice report. I had been thinking the same thing, but did not know the name or the details. One thing for sure, we have not heard the last of it. ..... If Nancy Drew, eeerrr, Nancy Grace ever gives up on missing little white gurls, this sounds like Prime Time $$$ MONEY $$$...
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