Michael Jackson's Doctor Waited 30 Minutes Before Calling 911

Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist serving as Michael Jackson's personal physician for his O2 concert run, waited roughly 20 to 30 minutes to call paramedics after finding the singer with a faint pulse last Thursday, the AP reports. Attorney Matt Alford, a partner in the law firm representing Murray as the LAPD investigates Jackson's death, said that the delay in calling 911 stemmed from Murray being unaware of his location in Los Angeles. "He didn't know where he was, didn't know the physical address," Alford said. "There was no land line, no phone in Jackson's room that would have allowed him to call. It was all happening so fast."

According to the report, Murray went downstairs and found Jackson's chef, who quickly fetched a security guard who joined Murray in Jackson's room. The unnamed security guard is the man who placed the 911 call that was released last week as Murray was in the background administering CPR. Paramedics arrived about three minutes after the 911 call was made. Murray has come under fire for attempting to give Jackson CPR on the singer's bed rather than the floor's solid surface, however attorney Edward Chernoff defended Murray's attempts, saying, "He knows how to perform CPR and he performed it properly."

Chernoff represented Murray during a three-hour interview with the LAPD this past Saturday, a conversation that raised "no red flag," the Los Angeles Times reported. As Rolling Stone reported, Murray denied reports that Jackson died after being given injections of painkillers; Chernoff called such rumors "absolutely false." "There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," Chernoff said. After paramedics spent 42 minutes trying to resuscitate Jackson at the singer's home, Murray rode along with Jackson in the ambulance to UCLA Medical Center, where Jackson was pronounced dead. Following Jackson's death, Murray spoke to LaToya and Jermaine Jackson, as well as their mother Katherine. Also according to the report, Jackson's children were permitted to see their father's body after a consultation with a psychiatrist.

Related Stories:
• Michael Jackson's Doctor Refutes Claims He Gave Star Injection
• Jackson Family Orders Second Autopsy, Doctor Speaks to LAPD
• Michael Jackson 911 Call Reveals "Only the Doctor Was Here"

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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