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

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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