Michael Jackson begged a nurse to get him some Diprivan (Propofol) – a potent injectable drug used to induce and maintain anesthesia during surgeries and to provide continuous sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU).
According to Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who runs a Los Angeles-based nutritional counseling business, Jackson was complaining of insomnia and repeatedly pleaded for the powerful anesthetic.
Lee says Jackson told her his doctor said it was safe.
Four days prior to Jackson’s death, Lee received a phone call from a member of Jackson’s staff that made her fear he had obtained Diprivan.
“He called and was very frantic and said, `Michael needs to see you right away.’ I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I could hear Michael in the background …, ‘One side of my body is hot, it’s hot, and one side of my body is cold. It’s very cold,'” Lee said.
“I said, `Tell him he needs to go the hospital. I don’t know what’s going on, but he needs to go to the hospital … right away.”
“At that point, I knew that somebody had given him something that hit the central nervous system,” she said, adding, “He was in trouble Sunday and he was crying out.”
Jackson died June 25 after suffering cardiac arrest. Autopsies have been conducted, but an official cause of death is not expected for several weeks.
Diprivan is not a drug used outside of surgical use or the ICU, and for Jackson to ask for the drug by name suggests that he may have been given the drug before – which calls in question the ethics of any health care practitioner who would administer it.
UPDATE: It is now being reported that Diprivan (Propofol) was found in Jackson’s home.
View video of Campbell Brown CNN interview with Cherilyn Lee below
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong