Wajua kilichomuua Michael Jackson

London gigs killed Michael Jackson: Family lawyer says ailing star was on massive medication to get him ready for O2 concerts

By David Gardner, Liz Thomas and Mark Coleman

Michael Jackson's family lawyer today blamed his sudden death on his inner circle pushing him too hard in the run up to a series of comeback gigs in Britain.
Brian Oxman, who was with the Jacksons in Los Angeles overnight, revealed the 50-year-old singer had been taking drugs for months in his battle to be fit for the string of concerts next month.
Kaka wa Michael Jackson akiongea na waandishi wa habari hospitalini

mwili wa Michael Jackson ukifikishwa hospitalini

He suffered a massive heart attack and stopped breathing last night. His personal doctor, thought to be Dr Tohme Tohme, was with him but could not resuscitate him.
There is growing speculation today that the catastrophic cardiac arrest was triggered by an injection of the painkiller Demerol after rehearsals in his home town.
Paramedics were told he was 'not breathing at all' and rushed him to UCLA hospital where a team tried to revive him for more than an hour but he never came round.
An autopsy will be held in Los Angeles today but those close to the star believe it is an addiction to prescription drugs as he prepared for the gigs in London that killed him.

So sudden: Hours later Michael Jackson's body is taken away to the Coroner's office
Mr Oxman, who was with sister La Toya and brothers Jermaine and Randy, blamed the singer's 'enablers' for pushing him too hard in the run up to the gigs which had been due to start on July 13.
'This was something which I feared and something which I warned about. This is a case of abuse of medication, unless there is another cause that I don’t know about. Where there is smoke there is fire.'
Waandishi wa habari walifurika hospitalini hapo

He told CNN: ‘This family has been trying for months and months and months to take care of Michael Jackson. The people surrounding him have been enabling him.
'If you think the case of Anna Nicole Smith was abuse then that is nothing in comparison to what we have been seeing in Michael Jackson’s life.'
Enlarge
Tearful: Jermaine Jackson confirms his brother's death at a press conference at UCLA hospital
‘Michael had appeared at the rehearsals a couple of times. He was very seriously trying to be able to do these rehearsals. But his use of medications had become in the way and injuries he had sustained performing had got in the way.'
He added: 'He had broken a vertebrae performing and he had broken his leg in a fall from the stage. I don’t know the extent of the medications he was using but the reports that we have been receiving in the family were that it was extensive.’
Former producer and friend Tarak Ben Ammar echoed fears of drug abuse, claiming Jackson had been a hypchondriac who had been taken advantage of 'charlatan doctors'.
'It’s clear that the criminals in this affair are the doctors who treated him throughout his career, who destroyed his face, who gave him medicine to ease his pain,' he told France’s Europe 1 radio.
'He was a hypochondriac and one never really knew if he was sick because he had become surrounded by charlatan doctors who were billing him thousands and thousands of dollars worth of drugs, vitamins.'
Promoters of the shows at the O2 arena in South-East London had said in March that Jackson had passed a four and half hour medical with independent doctors.
It was hoped the This Is It concerts would revive Jackson's tarnished career after almost 12 years off the stage, during which he became ever more eccentric and faced allegations of child abuse.
When the dates were announced, promoter Randy Phillips said: 'He's as healthy as can be - no health problems whatsoever'.
Despite nagging fears for his health and fitness, the singer's representatives insisted he would be able to perform and the stage was set for the most expensive, technologically advanced shows ever.
Jackson badly needed the revenue from the gigs to stay afloat and they would have earned him as much as £50million.
Despite being one of the most successful recording artists of all time with hits such as Thriller, Bad and Billie Jean, he was believed to be $500million (£303million) in the red.
More than 750,000 tickets had been sold but concerns for the star grew when the first four gigs were postponed last month, although organisers AEG Live insisted this was unrelated to his health.
They were still selling tickets just 24 hours before he died and now face a possible £300million liability depending on their insurance small print. Fans have been assured they will get a full refund.


Devastated: Jackson's sister La Toya arriving in tears, followed by his mother, Katherine
Mashabiki wakilia kwa uchungu
Wapenzi wa MJ wakiwa njee ya Hospitali
Devastated: Jackson's sister La Toya arriving in tears, followed by his mother, Katherine

Kilichomuua Michael Jackson
WHAT IS DEMEROL?
Demorol is a prescription drug taken to ease pain. It is also known as Pethidine and can easily lead to addiction. Professor Steve Field, head of the Royal College of General Practictioners, said it is a 'drug of abuse' and similar to heroin.

'If you are addicted then you need higher and higher doses to have any impact. A high dose would slow down breathing then make it stop altogether. If you are left long enough you get oxygen depletion to the body which damages tissues and leads to a cardiac arrest. This is why paramedics will try to get oxygen back in the body with resuscitation,' he said.

Some countries including Australia have limited the use of Demerol after migraine patients started getting addicted to it. It is still used in the UK as a painkiller, especially for women in childbirth.

Jackson wrote about the drug in his 1997 album Blood on the Dance Floor in a song entitled Morphine. 'Trust in me, trust in me, put all your trust in me, you're doin morphine. Demerol. Demerol. Oh God, he's taking Demerol,' the lyrics said.
Jackson's ex-wives Debbie Rowe and Lisa Marie Presley both expressed their shock at the tragedy. Rowe, the mother of two of his three children, was 'inconsolable'.
Presley, whose own father died from an overdose to prescription drugs in 1977 at the age of 42, said she was 'heartbroken' for the children.
‘I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible. Words fail me,’ she said.
Close friend Uri Geller said: 'I feel that the anticipation of this mammoth challenge of doing these 50 concerts, wanting it to be close to perfection, putting him under huge, huge pressures, that could have been it.'
Jackson's body was seen being taken from the hospital last night. It was taken to the Los Angeles' Coroner's office where the autopsy will take place sometime today.
Investigators will focus on claims the star had a long-term addiction to painkillers as they seek to establish a cause of death.
A result could take days, or even weeks, due to the complex toxicology tests that will need to be done to identify any drugs in Jackson's system.
Murder squad detectives have been put in charge of the case and were today searching the Beverly Hills home were the singer collapsed, but a Los Angeles Police spokesman said the death was not suspicious.
‘Nothing should be read into this,’ he said. Detectives plan to interview relatives, friends and Jackson’s doctors to try and figure out what happened.
Jumba la Michael Jackson.