Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

**Yvonne N.** · 07-31-2009, 04:28 PM

Re: Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

Dr. Murray

Dr. Conrad Murray was born in St. Andrews, Grenada. He spent the first seven years of his life being cared for by his maternal grandparents. His mother, Milta, traveled to Trinidad and Tobago, seeking better occupational opportunities. His grandparents were indigent farmers who lived off the land.

At age seven he moved to Trinidad & Tobago to join his mother and stepfather. He later became a citizen and completed his primary schooling under the British education system. At age 18 he spent a year as a voluntary elementary school teacher in Trinidad. He then became a customs clerk, and later worked as a part-time insurance underwriter for American Life Insurance Company. When he was 19 years old he bought his first home. The proceeds of its sale later funded his education in the United States.

In 1978, at the age of 25, he met his father for the first time, Rawle Andrews, M.D.. Dr. Andrews served the greater Houston metropolitan area for 37 years prior to his death.

In the spring of 1980, Dr. Murray returned to Houston and enrolled at Texas Southern University. He completed his degree in pre-medicine and biological sciences in three years and graduated with honors as Magna Cum Laude.

In 1989 he graduated with a degree in medicine from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. This followed his return from 4th year senior elective medical training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In 1992, he completed his internship and residency at Loma Linda University Medical Center, in Loma Linda, CA.

After Loma Linda Medical Center, he attended the University of Arizona for his Cardiology Fellowship training. Dr. Murray later went into his sub-specialty training at University of San Diego and Sharp Healthcare in San Diego, California. There, Dr. Murray was under the guidance of renowned Interventional Cardiologist, Professor Maurice Buchbinder, M.D., with whom he spent 3 years following his training as the associate director for the interventional cardiology fellowship-training program at Sharp Memorial Hospital San Diego.

In 1999 Dr. Murray moved to Las Vegas, NV, and because of the patients and people he met in the community he opened a private practice in the spring of 2000. In honor of his father who had dedicated his life as a servant for the underserved, in July 2006, Dr. Murray opened The Acres Heart and Vascular Heart Institute in Houston, Texas. The institute is located in an area known as Acres Homes. It is a 14 square mile community in Harris County. The demographics from this community show that it has the highest incidences of cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, loss of limb, and morbidity and mortality in the county due to underlying vascular pathology and low socio-economic status. Many of the patients have to choose between purchasing food or medicine.

Dr. Murray also opened and developed the Interventional Cardiology Division for performing off-site balloon angioplasty procedures for Doctors Hospital in Houston, Texas. He has performed more than one hundred interventional revascularization procedures for both coronary and peripheral arterial disease at Doctors Hospital without having a single patient transfer due to a major complication. Dr. Murray travels twice monthly to care for the citizens of Acres Homes. The cost to maintain that practice exceeds any collection. Nonetheless, Dr. Murray is still dedicated to the clinic and remains relentless in his support due to his love for that community.

In May 2009, Dr. Murray became Michael Jackson’s personal physician.

Source

**Yvonne N.** · 07-31-2009, 04:31 PM

Re: Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

Dr Murray’s mom, a proud woman

By RHONDOR DOWLAT Tuesday, July 7 2009

A FEMALE relative of deceased pop icon Michael Jackson’s Trini-born physician Dr Conrad Murray, who refused to give her name, yesterday said Dr Murray’s mother was proud of him and his accomplishments especially being chosen by Jackson, to be his personal doctor.

The woman who was contacted on a land line at a house in El Soccorro, where Dr Murray’s mother lives, said she did not like how the media was “dragging Murray’s name in the dirt and accusing him with Michael’s death”.

“I do not like what the media is saying about him (Murray). They are just digging things from the ground that is not appropriate. The police have cleared him saying that he is not to be blamed for Michael’s death, so I do not understand why they keep dragging his name in the dirt,” the woman said.

Asked how she thinks Murray’s mother feels about the entire situation, the woman replied: “I do not know much, but I am sure his mother is proud of him because he is her son. Any mother will be proud of their son and his accomplishments, so I am sure she is very proud of him.” Murray was at the centre of a probe into Jackson’s death as he was the last one with him at his (Jackson’s) rented Los Angeles mansion on June 25, when he went into cardiac arrest. Jackson was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died.

Murray, 56, was interviewed by police for three hours after which they subsequently cleared him of any suspected foulplay. In a report in the English newspaper The Sun, Murray is seen in an undated photo barebacked, posing with two women dressed in blue and green Carnival costumes.

The report claimed Murray was promoting an energy drink — Pitbull, when the picture was taken. It also claimed that Murray cavorted with the models on a jaunt to Trinidad and Tobago.

Companions on the trip told The Sun that Murray loved to “party hard”. According to the Sun report, promotions girl Maggie Goldstein, 34, who took several photos of the doctor partying hard in Trinidad said: “He certainly knew how to party. He joined a promotional group on the island plugging a new high-energy drink called Pit Bull which I think he invested in and he showed he had plenty of high-energy while he was there. There were about ten models and promotion girls who were recruited in Las Vegas,” Goldstein said.

“I recognised him straight away when pictures appeared of Michael Jackson’s doctor. I had no idea he was supposed to be a top heart specialist. I just thought he was an old guy with an eye for the ladies,” Goldstein told The Sun.

**Yvonne N.** · 07-31-2009, 04:45 PM

Re: Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

Diprivan,

the most talked-about drug this week was introduced during the early eighties manufactured by a small German pharmaceutical company called Zeneca. It arrived at a time when almost all surgery was done under general anesthesia using halogenated carbons which were vaporized after the mask was fitted. Halothane was the first of this type of drug after we graduated from chloroform and ether. Such drugs were extremely toxic and balancing oxygen saturation was a test for the best of any anesthetist. Recovery from general anesthesia took longer than the actual operation.

Although the move to vaporizers was a giant step for doctors and mankind, the price was high on liver damage to patients as well as anesthesiologists. The daily inhalation unfortunately also took its toll on surgeons who spent hours day after day in the OR. It was in the late seventies that we started to see a move to what is now called “day surgery”. One would arrive at the hospital for minor surgery and be back home that afternoon. The dawn of a new area of synthetic opioids which were well tolerated and effective, transformed simple albeit skillful surgical procedures.

Research Pharmaceutical companies continued to press on with their commitment to reduce the toxic effect of vaporized solutions. There are only two now in use for general anesthesia under the name of desflurane and sevoflurane (fluorinated methyl ethyl ether brand). Though they vaporizes very readily, it is a liquid at room temperature. Anaesthetic machines are fitted with a specialized anesthetic vaporizer unit that heats liquid desflurane to a constant temperature.

Propofol back in the eighties showed tremendous potential as an anesthetic in combination with nitrous oxide, because of its efficacy, rapid onset, low toxicity and a low tolerance index. Any drug which acts on the CNS (central nervous system) as a relaxant have one thing in common. tolerance. This means an increasing dosage to deliver the same pharmacological effect. When synthetic benezodiazapies, Librium and Valium were introduced to the medical market by the Hoffman La Roche company in the sixties it revolutionized the management of neurotic anxiety complaints but tolerance was and still is the down side.

Fentanyl is another synthetic opioids which although synthesized by Dr. Paul Janssen in 1959 following the medical inception of organic morphine several years earlier, and based initially on the chemical starting point of opioid activity. The widespread use of fentanyl triggered the production of fentanyl citrate, which entered the clinical practice as a general anesthetic under the trade name Sublimaze in the 1960s. However due to the potential street abuse was and still is classified as a Schedule II drug in north America.

The point I am making is that as far back as the eighteenth century when The Andean natives discovered the euphoric action of Erythroxylon coco and Albert Niamey isolated cocaine which was endorsed by Sigmund Freud for its physiological effects and In 1890 Halstead used cocaine for infiltration and conduction nerve block for dental use, nothing much has changed in the search for the euphoric effect other than the source being less ad hoc. Synthetic compounds are easily titrated for precise therapeutic efficacy. Whereas the effect of inhaling the fumes from roots or leaves do not have an FDA standard. What could be more poignant than Bob Marley’s song “One love” in which he was in a twilight zone over political dogma. Ref. Bob Marley relics.

In the mid 1990s, fentanyl saw its first widespread palliative use with the clinical introduction of the Duragesic patch, followed in the next decade by the introduction of the first quick-acting prescription formations of fentanyl for personal use. Through the delivery method of transdermal patches. Fentanyl is currently the most widely used synthetic opioid in clinical practice. Fentanyl is classified as a Schedule II drug in the United States due to its high potential for abuse.

The general anesthetic Diprivan (propofol) is at the top of the headlines this week as more sweeping of Dr. Conrad Murray’s gated house in which he lives continues. This scrutiny has resulted in three subpoenas being served on him. Until Michael Jackson’s death Dr. Murray owned and managed thee offices; one in Las Vegas and two in Los Angeles. He was also selected as Michael’s personal physician as he would travel as part of the team planning for his grand European tour. News reported that when in Los Angeles Dr. Murray lived at Michael’s rented house and house keepers said they would see Dr. Murray come down in the morning with what looked like two empty oxygen cylinders, one in each hand.

Propofol was never a controlled substance neither was it indicated for insomnia. Researchers also found that six out of 16 residents (about 38 percent) who abused propofol died from it. While these are small numbers, lead author Dr. Paul Wischmeyer, professor of anesthesiology at the University of Colorado, believes this is indicative of a larger problem. The use of propofol in conjunction of other synthetic narcotics along with nitrous oxide has revolutionized day surgery such as colonoscopies and even more complex surgical procedures. We will have to follow this drug to see if it will be classified under a schedule. Propofol (diprivan) however requires too complex an administration process for it to be targeted as a street drug.

Comments to [email protected] M.Sc. PharmD. CCPE Please visit www.AnestheticNews.com

**Yvonne N.** · 07-31-2009, 04:55 PM

Re: Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

Lawyer: Doctor denies giving Jackson Demerol

By JENNIFER LATSON, TERRI LANGFORD and CINDY GEORGE

The Houston cardiologist who ended up as Michael Jackson's deathbed attending physician met the singer in Las Vegas three years ago when one of Jackson's three children was ill during a stay there.

"One of Michael's children had an illness of some sort," Ed Chernoff, the Houston attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray, said today. One of Jackson's security personnel called someone for a reference and Dr. Murray, a doctor with offices in Las Vegas and Houston, was recommended, Chernoff said.

From that one chance meeting, the two developed a friendship, the attorney said.

"They were good friends," Chernoff said today, in between appearances on national television talk shows.

Then, as Jackson was preparing this spring for a series of concerts in London, the production company decided to have a physician on the tour and Murray was hired.

"Michael Jackson called him personally," Chernoff said.

Murray, considered by Los Angeles police a "witness," not a suspect, in Jackson's death, happened to be passing by Jackson's bedroom when he noticed Jackson was ill.

"He just came in to check on him, fortuitiously," Chernoff said.

Murray found a weak pulse in the femoral artery and began administering CPR, the attorney explained. Because Jackson was so frail, Murray “administered with his hand behind his back to provide the necessary support,” Chernoff said.

Chernoff, who was present during a 3 1/2-hour questioning session with police, said his client had not injected the powerful painkiller Demerol, despite rumors that the singer received a shot of the narcotic before he went into cardiac arrest Thursday.

“The doctor never prescribed nor administered Demerol to Michael Jackson,” Chernoff said of Murray who left his practices in Houston and Las Vegas three weeks ago to be Jackson’s personal physician. “Nor Oxycontin.”

While Murray had prescribed some medications for Jackson it is not known what Jackson took before he died. Chernoff did not know the last time his client saw Jackson alive. But there was no indication that the performer was about to suffer cardiac issues, he said.

"He has nothing to hide," Chernoff said of Murray. "The doctor will be proven to be innocent.

Los Angeles County coroner’s officials told the Associated Press their autopsy found no indication of trauma or foul play. But because of additional tests, an official cause of death could take weeks to determine.

Paramedics rushed to Jackson’s rented Bel-Air mansion Thursday after the 50-year-old singer fell unconscious. They spent about 45 minutes trying to revive Jackson, who was pronounced dead later at UCLA Medical Center.

Murray rode with Jackson to the hospital and he was in the emergency room where doctors tried to revive the singer, Chernoff said. After he was declared dead and Murray was asked to sign a death certificate, he refused saying an autopsy was needed first.

Murray then left the dead singer to comfort family members at the hospital: Jackson's siblings LaToya and Jermaine as well as their mother, Katherine Jackson.

Then Murray, together with Jackson's manager, told the King of Pop's three young children their father was dead, Chernoff said.

"He (Murray) was there for over three hours," Chernoff said, disputing reports that the physician had not even talked to family members after Jackson was declared dead.

As news of the singer’s death circled the globe, media focus turned to the singer’s recent addition to his ever-expanding entourage: Dr. Murray.

Murray accepted the position of Jackson's personal physician in May, and sent a letter on June 15 to his clinic patients in Las Vegas.

“Because of a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity, I had to make a most difficult decision to cease practice of medicine indefinitely,” begins the letter, obtained by the celebrity news Web site TMZ.com.

Rev. F. N. Williams Sr., pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Acres Homes, said Murray flew back to Houston about a month ago to talk to him about the offer. They two talked for nearly an hour at the Armstrong clinic.

“He just wanted to get my opinion,” he said. “My gut feeling was no, but the man had worked out here with the poor people in this area. And all of this pay was off insurance checks, assistance and old age assistance checks. He had done so well for the people for nothing, really. … He wanted to make some money.”

And Jackson’s offer was lucrative.

Chernoff says the cardiologist is owed $300,000 by Jackson’s promoter.

Randy Phillips, CEO and president of AEG Live, says the $150,000-a-month contract still lacked Jackson’s signature.

The company was only advancing the money to Jackson, and the doctor’s claim may now be against the singer’s estate, he said.

In debt
Collecting that money is not Murray’s highest priority right now, his attorney added.

“He’s mourning the loss of a friend, not just a patient, and now he’s in the middle of this hurricane,” Alford said.

Spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik added: “You can imagine how upsetting it is to take on a client like this and have them pass away and not know how it happened. He’s really looking forward to the toxicology report. At this point that might be the only thing that could help bring answers.”

Court records show that Murray, who has not spoken publicly since the singer’s death, desperately needed the money.

His well-heeled life in Las Vegas with a medical business and a $1.1 million home masked civil judgments and debts that seem to have started piling up after he graduated in 1989 from MeHarry Medical College School of Medicine in Nashville.

In 1992, Murray filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in California.

Current records in Nevada show more than $435,000 in court judgments against him and Global Cardiovascular Associates. Included among those debts is $71,000 on an education loan and $135,000 to a leasing firm.

Last December, there was a judgment against Murray for failing to pay child support in San Diego and his wages were garnished for nearly $1,500 by a credit card company.

Debt also followed Murray to Houston, where he opened the Acres Home Heart & Vascular Institute three years ago as a tribute to his late father, Dr. Rawle Andrews Sr., a long-time primary-care physician in the community.

Last year, Rogers Northwest Inc. filed a breach of contract suit, claiming Murray owed $201,298 for an unpaid lease for the space that housed his Houston practice. The suit states the Houston clinic shut its doors on or about April 15, 2008 and that Murray has failed to respond at all to the suit or appear in court.

‘Filled in the void’
Charles Ingram, president of the Acres Homes Citizen Council, said Murray could have set up his practice in the Texas Medical Center, but chose Acres Homes to give residents without cars or bus fare access to his services.“Dr. Conrad Murray came in and filled in the void as a heart and vascular specialist,” Ingram said.

The 65-year-old said Murray endeared himself with his late father’s longtime patients because he looked and acted so much like him.

While his father has other children, “that child looks like him, speaks like him and everything else,” Ingram said.

Ingram said he and other citizen council members “spread the word that he was yet here in Houston and needed patients.”

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, said he first met Murray at a reception celebrating the opening of his Acres Homes practice.

“Dr. Murray always strikes me as very professional, a stand-up individual,” said Turner. “He’s very much committed to continuing the medical legacy of his father, and everyone I know who’s a patient of his speaks highly of the care he provides.”

As a child in the ’60s, Turner was a patient of Andrews, who he said took an interest in him beyond medical care, reminding him to stay in school and make good grades, for instance. At the time, Turner never saw Murray, who’s a few years younger.

Williams said that his Acres Homes patients are waiting for their doctor to return to his Houston practice.

“We’re here. We’re waiting on him to come back. I have an appointment next month,” Williams said. “This man saved my life and he saved so many lives of the people around here. … If it wasn’t Michael Jackson (who died), nobody would have said a durn thing.”

Source
Staff writers Todd Ackerman, Paige Hewitt and Anita Hassan contributed to this report, which contains material from the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times.

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**Dr.Dudd** · 07-31-2009, 08:47 PM

Re: Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

I knew that he was from some Island, one of my associates said it was Jamaican, but I couldn't find the connection with all the jamaican associations I check.

Blackstar* · 08-06-2009, 06:55 AM

Re: Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

Dr. Murray certainly seems to be a well-educated and ambitious professional. I wonder what really happened and hope for his sake that the whole truth in this affair comes to light. Whether or not he's responsible for MJ's death, he wouldn't be the only one, just the most recent actor...

Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

Trinidad docs support MJ's cardiologist

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