THIS IS IT tour, DEMEROL and MICHAEL JACKSON’S VISITS TO DR. KLEIN’S OFFICE

It always surprised me how quick and easy it is to tell a lie and how laborious it is to refute it. Look at this piece from the recent autopsy program on Channel 5 of British television, for example, and see how three big lies are crammed into so little a space:

– How did a 50-year old man with osteoarthritis, lupus, scarred lungs and an addiction to Demerol manage to turn it around? The clue is lying in Jackson’s body. He gets another narcotic.
– Extensive toxicological testing was performed on numerous samples taken from Jackson’s body. In the urine sample it was noted that a drug called ephedrine was present.

See how easy it is? People are told a pack of lies about Michael though he didn’t have an addiction to Demerol, Ephedrine is not a narcotic and Michael didn’t “get” but was given Ephedrine by another. However to prove all of it you need to do a long research and write a detailed post in several parts.

There wouldn’t be even a need for these posts if it weren’t for this autopsy program. But some people are absolutely adamant that Michael Jackson should never be left alone and this makes us do what they invite us to do – discuss Demerol (and Ephedrine), Dr. Klein’s medical records and whether MJ did or didn’t have any withdrawal symptoms from the Demerol injected by Klein during his cosmetic procedures. 

SURPRISES AND SCARES OF DR. KLEIN’S INVOICE

The invoice for Klein’s dermatological services to Michael was sent as a creditor’s claim to the Estate in October 2009. But when Michael was still alive a similar invoice was obviously sent to Michael Kane and AEG Live too as it was from there that Randy Phillips learned that Klein was shooting Michael up with something that “scared them to death”.

A quote from the ABS tweets from the AEG trial:

On Jun 23, Michael Kane wrote to DiLeo and Phillips: “Where does Arnold Klein stand on the list? “
“He scares us to death because he is shooting him up with something”, Phillips wrote back.

Randy Phillips was talking of Demerol. Michael was at a rehab for Demerol dependency in 1993 right at the time when Paul Gongaware was Michael’s tour manager, so there is no question that the AEG bosses had first-hand knowledge of MJ’s earlier problems with Demerol, and this is why during rehearsals for This is it tour they were constanly on the look out for signs of Demerol use and heavily suspected Michael of an addiction to it.

A quote from Karen Faye’s tweet:

RP and Paul Gongaware were fully aware of Michael’s issues. They thought they could control the situation by controlling Murray. 
http://tl.gd/mo440e

When I looked at Dr. Klein’s invoice of medical procedures for the first time it scared me too –  it also seemed to me that Klein was giving Demerol too often and probably too much.

Murray’s hidden bags in the closet contained 3 big bottles of 10mg Midazolam which were never supplied by Applied Pharmacy Services. By the way Midazolam is never used in a home setting either

Moreover he was also injecting it in a combination with Midazolam (Versed) for which I have a complete idiosyncrasy since the time I learned of Murray’s experiments with it on Michael and the gigantic quantities he was ordering for the injections (for details please see this post).

A discovery made after the post showed  that 3 bottles of 10ml Midazolam were found in Murray’s bag though from Applied Pharmacy Services he got only 2mg bottles.

This introduced us to the fact that Murray had a second supplier of medications and could have injected MJ with a real lot of this drug. Midazolam by the way also requires close monitoring as it stops breathing as easily as Propofol does.

But as to Klein’s administration of Midazolam to MJ later on I realized that 1 or 2mg of it was given by Klein exactly for the purpose it is usually meant for – for beating Michael’s anxiety and fear during injections under his eyes and for conscious sedation which required Michael to be sedated but responsive during the process.

If Murray was giving Michael that little it was keeping MJ conscious at night (instead of sleepy) and if he was giving him more, this could result in a breathing arrest, and at the very least was making Michael groggy and lethargic the next day.

However let’s put Versed aside and look only into the Demerol administered to MJ by Klein in March-June 2009.

Below is a calendar showing the dates when Michael visited Klein and the amount of Demerol given to him on those days:

The Demerol dosage of 100mg is marked gray, 200mg is marked green, 300mg is marked blue, 375mg (the maximum given on one day) is marked navy. The * sign (on June 4) means that though there was a visit there was no Demerol, and two more funny marks with arms and legs around the dates mean that on those days Demerol was accompanying Botox injections into MJ’s armpits and groin for excessive perspiration.

Please remember:

• The maximum of Demerol allowed per day is 600mg (according to Dr. Waldman, expert witness at Murray’s trial) and 900mg (according to other sources).

• Demerol was injected by Klein in the so-called RUQ and LUQ which mean Right Upper Quandrant and Left Upper Quandrant respectively, so the shots of the painkiller were made right into Michael’s face and not into his veins. This makes all those blurred pictures of Demerol injected into MJ’s veins in the recent Channel 5 program a little piece of fantasy on the part of its authors.

Below you will find a summary of Dr. Klein’s medical procedures based on his invoice of October 2009 and his handwritten medical records subpoenaed by court for Murray’s trial in 2011. The summary will be accompanied by occasional comments from the defense addiction expert Dr. Waldman and information about various medications and events being the background for Michael’s visits to Dr. Klein’s office.

THE VISITS

On March 12 Klein injected 200mg and worked with Restylane on MJ’s cleft in his chin. Dr. Waldman said this dose showed Michael to be tolerant to Demerol as a starting dose for a Demerol-naive person would be 50mg. Of course Michael’s previous experience made him tolerant to this painkiller, so not to feel the pain his body required more of it, however I still have a suspicion that Klein overdid it and 100mg could have been just enough.

Michael left Klein’s office with a mask on his face evidently hiding the swelling from Restylane injections. 

March 12, 2009 Michael leaves the Beverly Hills clinic

Five days later, on March 17 another 200mg of Demerol preceded a series of Restylane shots. Dr. Waldman said that this dose would make the patient sleepy, lethargic, unresponsive. 

A WORD ABOUT RESTYLANE: Doctors say that in the areas except around eyes the Restylane filler is tolerated well though it may result in some swelling for up to 10 days:

Restylane is a very well tolerated filler if applied correctly.  There may be minor bruising and swelling after the injection.

Swelling typically last 7-10 days. When fillers are injected in the cheek area, particularly when close to the lower eyelid, swelling may persist longer than other areas of the face. You may have a resolving ecchymosis or bruise responsible for the asymmetry. http://www.realself.com/question/restylane-bad-side-effects

March 23, 2009

Five days later, on March 23 Klein injected Botox under the eyes preceded by 200mg of Demerol. Michael looked fine and left Klein’s office with no mask but wearing black sunglasses. 

Nine days later, on April 2 the medical records noted that there was a bulge of skin under the right eye. 

No injections of Demerol were given and the visit was not even listed in the invoice. Appointment for Monday April 6 was made.

On April 6 and 9 Restylane was injected in the cheeks accompanied by 200mg of Demerol. Michael was seen going shopping on one of those days. 

Eight days later, on Friday April 17 three injections of Demerol preceded the shots of Botox made for excessive perspiration in the axilla area (axilla is a medical term for armpits, underarms). Botox was used in the amount big enough to cost $1500.

Part 1 of the invoice

This is where a discrepancy between the medical records and the invoice appears. 

The medical records say that the Botox was accompanied by a 300mg dose of Demerol.

However the invoice for April 21 forgets to mention the painkiller and puts it into the bill for April 23 (where no procedures were mentioned).

TMZ made a mountain out of a molehill and claimed that “Jacko” was going to Klein solely for Demerol, even without any procedures given to him.  

The 300mg of Demerol were given on April 21st and not 23rd as the invoice says. A clerical mistake

Walden interpreted the shift from 200mg to 300mg as a development of tolerance.

To me the amount of Demerol for a procedure worth $3000 and in so sensitive an area as the groin looks like being just right, if not even too little considering that the maximum a day may be 900mg.

The next day after the huge amount of Botox was injected, on April 22  Michael was given only some Fine Needle and Restylane procedures on the lips.

The invoice also mentioned the application of EMLA (a combination of local anesthetics to be rubbed into skin). It also stated the biggest injection of Demerol (375 mg) which showed that on that day the pain was bigger than before and we can even guess in what area it was.

This made me look into how well the Botox injections are tolerated by patients and what they actually feel like.

BOTOX

What people are writing about it produced on me a really strong impression. Only after reading their comments did I realize that Botox is actually a toxin. It is produced by bacterium which is also responsible for a life-threatening  poisoning called botulism.

Many people wished they had never tried Botox:

Part 2 of the invoice

I received Botox a week ago to the forehead. I have had a migraine and terrible back pain since the night I got it. Can’t sleep at night. Terrible muscle aches, almost flu like symptoms. Wish I would have never gone!

I went to a third Dr. today. Finally, a Dr who believes it was no doubt from the Botox that I have had 12 days of terrible headaches and flu like aches. Tomorrow will be 13 days since treatment. My back pain is better, but these headaches are rough! Almost went to ER yesterday, but got in today with a more Holistic Dr. He believes the toxins definitely are released throughout the body and can cause all kinds of problems. Praying this pain ends soon and for those that are not well due to this horrific toxin.

I have exactly all the symptoms you listed: Dizziness, nausea, chills, sweaty palms, heart racing, muscle weakness, I had to stop working I couldn’t stand on my feet, headaches, and now I’ve got a cold that doesn’t go away with severe cough and I’m never sick and don’t take any antibiotics, my usual cold last 1-2 day, this been for weeks already, and time to time I feel like passing out and its so scary, I feel so stupid for injecting that poison in my forehead. Its been 2,5 months since I had Botox, I hope it’ll go away soon..

Everyone is different regarding how long it takes. Some people are better in a couple of months…others a year…others a couple of years….and others it takes longer. For me…I am still severely sick at 39 months.

I just had botox yesterday July 11, 2013 for the second time. I. Woke up feeling awful, like flu symptoms, stiff neck, low fever, body ache. I never put together the two things (malaise + Botox). I have visited around ten different specialists, have spent like $10 000 dollars trying to figure out what is wrong with me. After reading all your comments finally got some light at the end of the tunnel. Now my question is since I had my injections yesterday, how long do I have to wait for all the symptoms to go away? Any answers out there?

Been dealing with this a year and 1 1/2. No fun. Never an easy day.

I had per lane injections and it has been pure hell. Flu like symptoms, change in voice, fuzzy vision, stiffness where I can’t bend like being paralyzed. I ache constantly. I also at times run a low grade fever.

Prednisone does help, I have lowered the dosage to 6 mgs and that is like nothing, NO HELP. I’m trying to wean off because it’s so bad for your bones and everything else. I was a totally healthy person before all this and it has screwed up my life forever I feel. What’s to live for now? PAIN? I went from totally being active, never sitting down in daytime, very energetic to a turtle in pain. I WANT MY LIFE BACK!   http://www.realself.com/forum/flu-symptoms-after-botox

In short a toxin is a toxin and this will settle our relations with Botox forever, won’t it? The patients’ comments were valuable also because they mentioned Prednisone as a remedy to relieve the effect of all that poisoning and the resulting suppression of  the immune system.

Interesting, but the table of medication from the MJ autopsy report also mentions Prednisone which was prescribed by Klein exactly at the moment when Michael received those massive doses of Botox for excessive perspiration.

The empty bottle of Prednisone was found in Michael’s house and the date of April 25, 2009 on it explains to us better than anything else that Michael was also going through the living hell of Botox side-effects.

a page from the autopsy report

So the two  massive Botox injections against perspiration were made on April 17 and 21, but almost ten days later Michael was evidently still in much suffering as on April 25 Prednisone was prescribed to him in no small quantity  of “6 tablets now, 4 tomorrow”.

Awful as Botox is, but for beating perspiration it was probably a necessary procedure which as far as I remember was also recommended by Karen Faye (she even asked Klein whether Botox injections were possible for Michael’s head to avoid excessive perspiration under the wig).

By now we come to realize that since Michael was supposed to “dance his ass off” (Randy Phillips’s expression) he HAD TO to go to all this sacrifice to be able to give his best performance and not to look soaked all over after each song and dance. 

This is the price he had to pay and this is the back side of his fantastic show which his fans and the public were never meant to see.

Sorry that we did…

RESTYLANE

After the  Botox procedures and Restylane injections were made into his lip and right cheek on April 22 Michael left Klein’s office with a veil on his face.

April 22, 2009

For dates April 22-23 the medical records have an extensive but hardly comprehensible text in handwriting which contain words like  “eyes… direct… Restylane… Ultravate… Zyrtac 10mg … for faster relief of … upper lip slightly inflamed…  to continue use of Ultravate and to take Zyrtec 10gr”

Ultravate ointment is a topical corticosteroid. It works by reducing skin inflammation (redness, swelling, itching, and irritation) and is usually prescribed for psoriasis. This cream is also mentioned in the medication page of the autopsy report, at the bottom part of it among “Paraphernalia”. The prescription of Ultravate ointment on April 22-23 points to a serious problem with the skin.

Zyrtec sounds somewhat familiar as many use it for treating their allergies. Patients also mentioned it as a good relief from Restylane complications.

Though being a much safer filler than Botox Restylane also has its side-effects. These side-effects are much milder as Restylane is actually a natural acid generated by our body and even if injected under the skin in too big a portion it will eventually dissolve.

The injections last for 6 months and this is why MJ evidently wanted them right before the tour – if done earlier the effect would be lost by the time the tour ended.

However Restylane is recommended for lips only as under the eye it may lead to its own complications.

To avoid them Restylane is recommended to be injected deep into the muscle under the eye and this requires a skilled hand and an effective painkiller.

The answers of doctors to a question below will exhaust the subject:

Possible Complications of Having Restylane Injected to Get Rid of Under Eye Hollows?

Certain fillers, like hyaluronic acid (Restylane, Juvederm), can be used very effectively to correct under eye hollowness–or the tear trough. I would caution you to find a physician who is experienced with injecting fillers in this region. There is little room for error in this location because the thin eyelid skin won’t hide any lumpiness and the bruising can be much more obvious than in other parts of the face. Also, if the product is too close to the surface, a bluish tint can be seen occasionally. If this complication occurs or if there is just too much lumpiness, there is a product that can be injected into the area which will dissolve the filler and essentially wipe the slate clean. One way to minimize these risks is to inject a little more deeply (under the eyelid muscle). This does sometimes require slightly more product, however. I also believe that it is best to start conservatively and add more product as needed to achieve the desired result.

Any filler has side effects of swelling, bruising and lumpiness. The tear trough has more of this if fillers are injected under the skin and above the muscle. There is less of these effects when the filler is injected under the muscle. This takes experience to fill this area so make sure you see a doctor who does a lot of this. Generally a very safe treatment in the right hands.

Under eye filling to address the undereye hollows is considered an advanced technique.  This means that the nurse down the street is probably not a good choice for having this procedure.  Similarly if your dermatologist tells you that they are not comfortable injecting this area, you need to respect this. You might look for an oculoplastic surgeon in your area with a reputation for doing this treatment.

Regarding complications, the biggest complication is the risk of bruising.  Approximately 30% of individuals will have some degree of bruising.  Two out of one hundred will have a big black eye that can last up to 3 weeks.  Naturally everyone will think your significant other slugged you. Having a good story is helpful.  Bar fight usually works for guys. Hiding these with makeup is not so significant.  Avoiding things that can thin the blood is very helpful to reduce the risk of these.  It is important to remember that you are basically getting surgery, it just happens to be delivered by a syringe.

Lumps, bumps, and swelling are also to be expected after treatment.  Generally, I like to see my patients back within a week to seen if anything needs adjusting.  The genius of this treatment is that it is straight forward adjusting this material manually or with enzyme when needed.

Regarding the risk of some horrible event like blindness or being poked in the eye with a needle, it is critical that you seek treatment from injectors who are comfortable treating around the eye and know their anatomy forward and back.  I do midface surgery and know the surgical anatomy of the midface and lower eyelid like the back of my hand.  This is very important.  There are large blood vessel that must be avoided so that filler is not injected into a vein which might affect the circulation.  The choice of injector makes all the difference.

So just as Arnold Klein always said injections under the eye are no trifle matter and require that both the doctor and patient are not  jittery as the needle can poke in the eye. These injections are also made deep into the muscle, so you can imagine what it was like for Michael with his needle fobia!

If you listen to the patients’ side of the story you will also realize that Restylane is a painful procedure if done without a local anesthetic Lidocaine (the mix with Lidocaine is called Restylane-L).

However injecting the Restylane+Lidocaine mix may be somewhat misguiding as you never know how much Restylane will be left after Lidocaine goes away. And this is probably why Klein preferred to do it straight without Lidocaine but with Demerol instead.

Some of the patients’s comments are so informative that I simply could not make them any shorter:

I’ve been doing restylane for 8 years now and always request no lidocain because I feel it distorts how much of the product is really going into my face. Sure it’s painful, but I don’t want to pay all that money and walk away wondering. I’ve never experienced anything beyond temporary bruising.

Please only go to a board certified plastic surgeon or dermatologist for all your injectables. Fillers are a medical procedure and need to be properly injected. Many doctors take weekend courses and are not experienced. It is not the filler that causes problems. It is the injector.

If I had to do it all over again (trust me, this makes me think twice), here are my suggestions for those who care: 1. Make your appointment when you don’t have to see one human for at least 3 days. That means no events, work, etc. If your face was as bad as mine was, you don’t want anyone to come anywhere close to you. Better if you were able to escape to another planet for one full week. 2. Seriously, no IB Profin, Aleve, Advil (the vowels!) prior to the treatment, for two weeks. I didn’t, but boy, this experience really made me get real serious about that real quick. 3. Take Arnica 2 days before the treatment. Get it at a local Vitamin store for under $10. Ice before the treatment. Ask questions (how much, how long, check the box for the product, etc.). Ask who to call in case there was a problem. I would come in with clean skin (no makeup) and make sure they clean you really well when they inject. Just one more variable to take out of the equation, if there is a problem. 4. Immediately after: Sit there and ice. For like 15 minutes. Wait a bit to apply makeup. Don’t work out for 24 hours. Ice every hour for 5 minutes, if you can. Benadryl and Tylenol following treatment. Keep head elevated when you sleep. Drink tons of water. Keep up on your Arnica cream, medicine, etc. throughout the night. 5. The next day was the worst for me swelling wise. Keep up your medicine. Don’t plan to exercise for another 24 hours. Ice all day if you can. Drink lots of water to flush things out. When you go to bed that night, elevate your head. For two days after treatment, don’t do any blood thinners (IB Profin, etc.) just try to relax. Oh! And no rubbing, no moving the product. Just let it rest. You can make it worse rubbing it all around. 6. This should be your full second day. Like I said, my swelling had gone down 50% by doing as much as I could of the above. Still took the arnica all day and Tylenol. Drank lots of water. By the evening, I worked out for about 45 minutes…lightly, to start everything moving around and try to get these fluids out of me (and not cause bruising or additional swelling). That is where I am at right now. I’m fairly confident I’m on the way back to normalcy. Please, if you have a similar experience, call your doc (you paid a lot of money for this, it’s worth the Followup), and try to keep calm. The swelling will go down. Every hour today it’s decreasing. I swear the Arnica is helping. I look slightly normal, but no smile with teeth (joker!). Don’t panic. It will get better. The doc said in two weeks, I will love the look, like I did before. Stay calm and carry on! I hoped this helped someone. I know it would have helped me!

This swelling is common. Basically, Restylane is not the best product around the eyes.

Yes people need to know the risks of any filler treatment. The eye hollows is very delicate, I had a horrible experience with Juvederm under the eye which was resolved with Wydaise and then re-filled with Restylane. It took 3 months for the bruising and swelling to reside. I also expereinced intermittent swelling from time to time. However, overall I loved how it looked. The filler lasted about 12 months under my eyes. Many Fillers and Botox are used “off label” in areas that are not FDA approved.

I spoke to a pharmacist at Midicis Aesthetics about Restylane and Restylane-L.The only difference is the L contains Lidocaine. The ingredients are: Hyaluronic acid is generated by Strep bacteria (Restylane contains gram positive bacterial proteins). The average 70 kg (154 lbs) person has roughly 15 grams of hyaluronan in the body, one-third of which is turned over (degraded and synthesized) every day.

Have you taken anything orally to reduce swelling? I’m not sure but I think Claritin is helping a bit, nothing significant. I keep reading of woman taking steroids and reducing swelling.Those are tough to take.

My experience was the same. The swelling started 2-3 months after the second injections. No, I haven’t tried steroids. I’ve been taking Zyrtec. Sometimes I think it helps, but I took one last night and woke up this morning with the puffiest eyes yet. Fortunately I wear glasses and can hide behind them when this happens. Thinking about getting tinted lenses. http://www.realself.com/question/complications-restylane-injected-rid-eye-hollows

It is amazing how much you can learn from other people’s experience. They say it’s better not to see a single human for at least 3 days after the procedure and not to do any exercise.

This makes me understand why Michael wanted most of those procedures before the rehearsals started, why their dates were set so close to each other (it is better to do them all at once considering the side-effects) and why he often hid his face behind a mask in that period.

We also find that without a painkiller Restylane is painful and after its application under the eye there is a swelling and bluish tint in the area which makes people wear sunglasses. This is probably why Klein mostly preferred to do Botox under the eyes, even despite it toxic effects.

This also reminds me that Michael always wore sunglasses during rehearsals and Ortega got terribly cross with him for it. I don’t know what Ortega suspected Michael of but he repeatedly demanded that Michael should take down his glasses as if it were some kind of an offense to Ortega.

It seems to me that they were simply tripping on him and were finding fault with everything he did.

COMPLICATIONS

From the long text  on April 22-23 ,2009 you get that Michael had every complication he could possibly have. Klein prescribed anti-allergic Zyrtec  and Ultravate ointment (for skin inflammation)

From the patient’s comments we also learn that the treatment for Restylane swelling under the eyes is Zyrtec and to our amazement we find that this medication was also prescribed by Klein as the medical records show it.

It seems that Michael was having every complication he could possibly have.

Besides Zyrtec the other type of treatment taken in such cases is steroids described by patients as “tough to take”. I wonder if steroids will also have to be eventually used here?

From Michael’s further medical records  it becomes clear that the pain, swellings, inflammation and all other side-effects of Botox and Restylane apparently continued and grew only worse.

On April 25 Michael made a weekend call to Klein and this time the treatment provided to him was “intralesnl+7”.

The table with Prednizone mentioned above also relates to April 25, so evidently the situation went so much out of control that Klein had to be summoned in, deliver “intralesnl+7”  and prescribe “6 tablets of Prednizone now and 4 tablets tomorrow”.

What “intralesnl+7” means was difficult to find but after a long search I learned that it is an abbreviation standing for Intralesional steroid therapy. So the situation was that bad that they did have to resort to steroids?

However the main goal of  Intralesional steroid therapy is treating abnormal skin like scar tissue, keloids, acne, alopea areata (a form of hair loss), discoid lupus and inflammatory disorders.

Needless to say, Michael had ALL these conditions. That is why injections of those steroids into his scars and skin could be necessitated by some of Michael’s other disorders (like lupus, for example) and not only as treatment of the Restylane and Botox after-effects.

The patients already explained to us that steroid treatment is “tough to take” and that it also has its side effects:

Pain: the procedure is usually well-tolerated, although injections into certain parts of the body, such as the palms and soles, can be more uncomfortable.
Bleeding: spots of blood may occur at the injection sites.
Infection: occasionally infection can be introduced by the injections, and this may develop into an abscess, requiring antibiotic therapy.
Allergic reaction: this is very uncommon, but may occur to one of the constituents of the triamcinolone preparation.  http://www.drsearles.ca/intralesional-steroid-therapy

With so much going on with Michael’s skin, pain and complications from prior and currect injections it absolutely did not surprise me that April 25 was actually a big crisis day and Klein had to give 4 injections of Demerol 100mg each according to his invoice.

Medical records for April 27, 2009 showed 14 dots with Botox made under the eyes

April 27 was Monday. Restylane was used for the temples and above eye-brows. Botox was also injected – the drawing in the medical records showed 14 dots of Botox under the eyes.

This required 300mg of Demerol administered at 11:30 and 12:30. Michael left Klein’s office in a mask and a veil.

Wearing the green jacket he probably took from Klein, Michael and the children went shopping to the Ed Hardy store followed by a horde of fans and paparazzi. The mask and the veil were a necessity after all the mess his face was going through. And considering the inflammation and allergy he could also be afraid of an infection.

On April 27, 2009 at Ed Hardy store

On April 28, 30 and May 4 Botox fortunately stopped but Restylane and Intralesnl+7 continued. Each time it required 300mg of Demerol.

Waldman said that by this time Michael should have been dependent on Demerol and possibly addicted to it. He said: “Six weeks of Demerol use would make any of us dependent”.

However in May the doses of Demerol  began to decrease. May 5 was the last day when 300mg of Demerol were used.

LATISSE AND LATANOPROST

The May 5 invoice shows a different type of treatment –Restylane for acne scars (which was the general term Klein used for all types of scars) was supplemented with 5 injections of Latanoprost and application of Latisse. Medical records say that at 10:30 am 200mg of Demerol + 1mg of Midazolam were used for the Right side of the face and at 12:30 pm 100mg of Demerol + Midazolam 1mg were used for the Left side of it.

Here is a short note on Latisse and Latanoprost:

• Latisse is for growing eyebrows and eyelashes, and Latanoprost is mostly an eye-treatment. Wiki says this “ophthalmic solution is a topical medication used for controlling the progression of glaucoma or ocular hypertension by reducing intraocular pressure”. Its side effect is that it may cause thickening of the eyelashes (and this is why it is used in cosmetic industry as eyelash growth enhancers).

So Latanoprost could be used for its side effect of eyelash thickening, however its primary use is treatment of hypertension in the eyes? Well, hypertenstion in the eye could easily be the side-effect of all those Botox and Restylane injections around Michael’s eyes…

The theory that it was for the eyes and not for eye-lashes is somewhat confirmed by the fact that later Klein had to prescribe some drops for Michael’s eyes and that certain Bausch&Lomb eye-drops were found in Michael’s house.

Remember Murray’s affected surprise in his police interview that someone had treated Michael for the eye condition? In that conversation with policemen he also said that Michael had a very poor eyesight:

Dr.  Murray: He has — he has a magnification glass. His eyesight was very, very bad. So I did figure out he could be legally blind. His eyes was also very red. I ask him about glaucoma to see — because I’m trying to take care of him in general. And he says no, he don’t have any glaucoma.

And even I spoke to him at that time. He never told me he was seeing a doctor that had given him any substance like that for the eyes.

Just last week I got this doctor from U.C.L.A. to see him. Last Sunday, they were going to open their clinic to do a complete dilation, look in the back of his eyes, check his fundus and see what was happening, and see if they were going to give him any monocular vision or contacts, because I was worried that when he was in England, if you’re not seeing on the stage and all the bright lights, maybe you can fall and hurt yourself. So I encouraged him to have the eye examination. That examination was hopefully scheduled for last Monday.

Detective Martinez:  So he had agreed to it?

Dr.  Murray: He agreed to do it. But it never happened. I still have e-mail from the doctor asking me to call and reschedule it. And one thing or the other, it led to that being put off. But his team, his production team, agreed that, you know, it’s something that he should have done. So I was trying to find out issues with Mr. Jackson and trying to address them in a gradual way overall to help him. And that was one of the things I discovered. So that medication is a surprise.

And to me it is a surprise that Murray had to settle with “his production team” that this or that kind of treatment could or could not be provided to Michael. So this was the degree of AEG’s involvement in Michael’s medical affairs! They could allow or refuse that  “something should be done” to Michael though this matter should have been decided solely by his doctor!

Murray doesn’t even understand what a bomb he is dropping.

MICHAEL JACKSON IS TRAINING

Kenny Ortega joined the company at the beginning of May 2009

To give you an insight into what else was going on in Michael’s life at that period of time let me say that at the beginning of May the company was joined by Ortega (prior to that he had been busy with another project) and when the casting for dancers was over the dancers began training.

Michael was training at home with Travis Payne for several hours a day, at least 4 times a week:

TRAVIS PAYNE:  He and I would start about noon or 1:00 at his home. We’d dance a few hours and stretch.

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1309/29/se.01.html

On May 12 the LA Times reported that Michael was taken to Burbanks 4 times a week and stayed there for 6 hours. The only correction I would make to this information is that when in Burbanks Michael was training separately from the other dancers. He worked with Travis Payne in a smaller studio:

May 12, 2009|Harriet Ryan and Chris Lee

Four mornings a week, an SUV with darkened windows bears Michael Jackson through the gates outside a nondescript building near the Burbank airport. He spends the next six hours on a soundstage in the company of 10 dancers and pop music’s best-known choreographer.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/12/entertainment/et-jackson12

The other person with whom Michael was working out was Lou Ferrigno. Lou says he saw Michael up to four times a week. Michael looked energetic and alert. He danced well and looked fantastic though Ferrigno noticed that Michael was under much stress.

Someone doesn’t want us to know when was the last time Ferrigno saw Michael. The reports vary and by some accounts the final meeting between Ferrigno and Michael was at the end of May:

“When I saw him, he was not frail,” said Lou Ferrigno on Monday’s “Larry King Live,” recalling his final meeting with Jackson at the end of May. “He seemed fine, alert, no pain at all. The workout wasn’t any heavy resistance. A lot of stretching and a light walk on the treadmill,” Ferrigno said. “Being 50, his body went through a lot of stress getting ready for the tour, but he was awesome.”

http://www.americansuperstarmag.com/news/lou-ferrigno-michael-jackson-seemed-fine

By other accounts Ferrigno still worked with Michael in the first week of June, for example according to this article dated June 30:

Mr Ferrigno, 57, had been going to Jackson’s rented home in Los Angeles up to four times a week and had his final training session three weeks ago. He said he saw no signs of drug use.

“I don’t know anything about his personal life but at the time I was with him he seemed fine to work, no pain at all. He did a lot of stretching and when you have a lot of pain you can’t stretch. When I saw him he looked fantastic. I have never seen him look better.

“He might have been a little thin because he was under a lot of stress training for the tour. But when I put him through the routine and everything, it was just fine, very energetic.

“He was dancing as good as anyone. And, you know, I’m an expert. And I was with Michael. If I didn’t feel Michael could’ve pulled this off, I would’ve told him. I think he was going to give the greatest tour in his entire life.”

He said Jackson used exercise balls and did training to strengthen his core body muscles. He didn’t use weights and focused on being flexible so he could perform complicated dance moves. He also ran on a treadmill.

Mr Ferrigno, a former Mr Universe, said. “He only ate once a day. But I just told him the proper supplements to take. The most important thing was the attitude, the mind because he really wanted to be in his best shape.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/michael-jackson/5699082/Michael-Jackson-was-being-trained-by-Incredible-Hulk.html

So whether it was the end of May or beginning of June Ferrigno says that Michael was in a fine condition (and this despite all Demerol and Midazolam given to him by Klein).

DECREASE IN DEMEROL

After May 5 Klein’s invoices show a decrease in the use of Demerol. 

On May 6 Restylane was used again but Demerol was reduced to 200mg.

Part 3 of the invoice

Nine days later, on May 15 Michael was treated by another doctor (Dr. Reyter) and was injected 100mg of Demerol.

This was the time when Dr. Klein and his partner Jason Pfeiffer went on a vacation.

If we are to believe Dr. Waldman that Michael had already developed a dependency and even addiction to Demerol by that time, within 10 hours at the latest from the last injection he would have felt very bad and would have had withdrawal symptoms including nausea, sweating, diarrhea, insomnia and anxiety.

Dr. Waldman said about it:

Demerol has a short half-life. Three, four, six. Maybe, maybe eight hours. The metabolite accumulates, so that might have some effect as well. So I would expect that eight to ten hours after a Demerol dose he would probably not feel well.

May 12, 2009 Michael is caught by paparazzi arriving at Burbanks for a rehearsal

However Michael went without Demerol for nine whole days between May 6 and May 15 and there were absolutely no reports of him being in any kind of trouble.

He attended rehearsals, was involved in the dancers’ casting, was training at home and at Burbanks and was working out with Lou Ferrigno who said that Michael was energetic and he never noticed any signs of drugs.

Another four days passed since the visit on May 15 and according to Klein’s invoice on May 19 and 20 Michael received Intralesnl, Restylane, Sunscreen and some cleansing from Klein’s colleagues Dr. Reyter and Dr. Rish.

On both days the invoice says that Michael was given only one injection of Demerol per visit (100mg). However the medical records claim it was 200mg per visit.

What does this discrepancy mean? On this point we can only speculate. Was someone stealing Demerol in Klein’s office and writing it off as if given to MJ? Or was it just a clerical mistake? Out of the two documents I tend to believe the official invoice rather than the hardly readable handwritten notes  – the financial documents are usually more accurate.

Another proof that the invoice is more credible is that the invoice lists the visit on May 15 (with 100mg of Demerol) while the medical records do not.

May 15, 2009  Sadness

As the cosmetic treatment was subsiding the pictures taken in mid-May 2009 showed Michael leaving Klein’s office without any mask and even sunglasses – and this is when we are finally able to see his eyes and notice how deeply sad they are.

And I’m afraid that Michael had valid reasons for feeling that way.

CONFLICTS

At that time Michael was in the midst of various conflicts.

Besides his ongoing conflict with AEG over 50 concerts to be done with only one day between the shows, he had other problems to worry about – for example, the auction arranged by Tohme.

By then it had been called off but Michael was still to cover the auctioneers’ losses. Tohme was fired and his place was taken by Frank Dileo.

Rundall Sullivan describes the May period as follows:

Frank Dileo had a letter dated May 2, 2009, and signed (apparently) by Michael Jackson that appointed him as “one of my representatives and tour manager.”  According to Patrick Allocco, “Michael stopped all contact with Dr. Tohme”.

Tohme himself insisted that,“ Michael and I were still close. There is still love between us. I am still his manager.” What almost everyone else observed, though, was that by the middle of May 2009, Tohme, the man who described his job as “ protecting Michael Jackson from everyone and everything that can hurt him,” was largely out of the picture.

<>Even with Dileo in position, though, the question of Michael Jackson’s commitment to the O2 shows continued to concern Randy Phillips and the other executives at AEG. None of them was happy to learn that on the evening of May 14, Michael had arrived with his children at the Indian restaurant Chakra in Beverly Hills to join a celebration dinner marking Joe and Katherine Jackson’s sixtieth wedding anniversary, which, strangely, was being held six months before their actual anniversary in November.

May 15, 2009 Paul Gongaware and Randy Phillips accompany Michael to a meeting with Joe Jackson and  Leonard Rowe

<> That evening at Chakra <> Michael had allowed Katherine to convince him to join her the next day for a lunch meeting with Joe and Rowe at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

<> When Randy Phillips and Paul Gongaware learned of the scheduled meeting, they insisted upon joining it.

On the afternoon of May 15, at a table in the Polo Lounge, Phillips and Gongaware listened glumly as Joe Jackson explained that AllGood Entertainment had agreed to schedule the “Jackson Family Reunion Concert” at the Dallas Cowboys’ football stadium on July 3, which would give Michael plenty of time to get to London and prepare for the O2 shows.

Patrick Allocco was ready to guarantee the family a fee of $30 million. His brothers really needed their piece of that money, and “I do, too,” Joe told his son. Leonard Rowe pointed out that Michael would be much better paid, on an hourly basis, for that one AllGood concert than he would be for fifty shows at the O2 Arena.

Flanked by Phillips and Gongaware, Michael explained that the deal he had signed with AEG Live was an exclusive one. He couldn’t perform anywhere else until he had finished the concerts in London.”

Actually we have a picture of Michael on May 15 followed by a whole crowd of people including Randy Phillips and Paul Gongaware. Was it for that very meeting with Joe Jackson and Leonard Rowe that all of them were heading?

The medical records for May 19 and 20 have a drawing of the areas on which the dermatologists at Klein’s office were working on those days.

Though according to the invoice on those two days Michael was given only 100mg of Demerol he looked somewhat  “off” which is no surprising considering the stress he was under and evidently very little sleep he had. 

May 20, 2009

The fans look sad – they and the media were thinking the worst about Michael.

Michael’s detractors were happy to announce that Michael was seen leaving Klein’s office with what they thought to be the signs of a heavy sedation – while in reality he had nearly none of it.

All those problems were evidently wearing him so thin that even as little as 100mg of Demerol was now able to knock him off his feet.

On Thursday, May 21 Klein’s invoice and medical records say that Michael was given Botox on the forehead and one injection of 100mg of Demerol + 1mg of Midazolam.

For the next eleven days nothing happened – there were no visits and no medication.

On June 1, Monday Klein was back and was again giving Michael Restylane and 200mg of Demerol (it seems that he had a tendency to give a bigger amount of painkillers than his colleagues).  

On June 3, Wednesday at 5:30 and 6:50 Klein gave Michael “Intralesl” and Restylane in the upper lip, cheek, cheekbone accompanied by 200mg of Demerol in the Left and Right Upper Quadrants.

Part 4 of the inovice

I don’t know the exact day for it but it looks like the same day June 3 Kenny Ortega had a serious conversation with Michael. 

They called it a “private” meeting with Michael Jackson.

And Conrad Murray acted as a mediator between Ortega and MJ.

So they did arrange another meeting for Michael at the beginning of June and Conrad Murray was an active participant in it. It was the first out of several ‘riot’ meetings they had for Michael.

A MEETING IN EARLY JUNE

If we compare this news with the testimony of Kai Chase it seems that the early June meeting in Michael’s home was the one when a vase was broken.

Kai Chase had to clean up and overheard a heated discussion between the participants. Michael was the first to leave the scene. He was followed by Murray who left the meeting through a kitchen door muttering “I can’t take this shit any more”. All the others remained in the room even when Kai Chase’s working day was over and continued debating.

June 3, 2009

You will ask me how we know about this meeting between Ortega and Michael in early June?

Well, we naturally know about it not only from the picture of them together dated June 3^rd by MJJ Pictures.com, but from a very special and even precious Rolling stone article which is uniquely open about what was happening between Michael and his partners at the beginning of  June:

Although Jackson was playing a central role in shaping the comeback tour, taking the stage to prepare was another matter entirely.

While the crew logged long hours at CenterStaging, Jackson preferred to work from home most days. Those around him were getting nervous.

According to Phillips, AEG’s initial budget of $12 million for preproduction had more than doubled. But when the promoter pressed Jackson on the $150,000 a month he had agreed to pay Dr Murray, Michael rebuffed him sternly. “Look,” Jackson said, “my body is the mechanism that fuels this entire business. Like President Obama, I need my own personal physician attending to me 24/7.”

Others began to press Jackson to rehearse more. “I had my concerns if he was ready, and I questioned him,” says Ortega. “There were days when I was like, ‘Are you going to show up? Are you really going to be here? You need to do this.’ ” Citing the need for more setup time in London, Ortega asked for the opening show to be pushed back five days, to July 13.

In early June, Dr Murray mediated a meeting at Michael’s home between Jackson and Ortega, who felt the star needed to come to rehearsals more often. Jackson listened quietly to the tour director, but he didn’t seem alarmed. “I know my schedule,” he said calmly. “Just trust me.”

But after that, Jackson started coming to rehearsals all day, every day. To those around him, he seemed focused and attentive to every detail. “I like to refer to Michael as a gamer,” says DiLeo. “He’s the quarterback. He’s the star of the team, and in practise, quarterbacks are easygoing. But game day, he’s turning it on.”

http://rollingstoneindia.com/the-last-days-of-michael-jackson/

CNN also confirms that there was a “private” meeting between Kenny Ortega, Michael Jackson, Conrad Murray and Randy Phillips. If it was the broken vase meeting discussed at the AEG trial then Frank Dileo and Gongaware were also among those present:

Kenny Ortega, the director for This Is It, called a private meeting at Jackson’s home. AEG CEO Randy Phillips attended the meeting.

PHILLIPS: Kenny was concerned that he wasn’t coming to enough rehearsals, that he was taking it a little too nonchalantly. And Michael explained that he needed Kenny to build the house and then he would come in and paint the front door.

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1309/29/se.01.html

The USA Today makes it clear that the period we are talking of was indeed early June and the meeting was triggered off by Michael’s visits to Klein after which they felt he was “woozy”. So it was their concern about Klein’s injections that led to a meeting in Carolwood.

Several witnesses said Jackson would arrive at some This Is It rehearsals woozy after seeing Klein. He missed some rehearsals in early June. Director Kenny Ortega worried that “Michael wasn’t as engaged as he had to be, as focused as he had to be, on a production of this magnitude,” Phillips testified. Phillips said Jackson was not eating and was losing weight.

The concern led to a meeting at Carolwood. Murray promised the producers he would watch Jackson’s diet. Jackson reassured Ortega that he was working at home with choreographer Travis Payne and was up on his dance moves.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-11-02/michael-jackson-doctor-trial/51050764/1

So the demands from Ortega and Phillips to do this and do that were in full swing in early June, and Conrad Murray was a full participant in this process. Michael explained that he knew his schedule and asked Ortega to first build the house and then he would come and paint the front door, and this was absolutely correct.

But even though Michael didn’t agree, after that meeting in early June he still began to attend each and every rehearsal.

WHY YOU WANNA TRIP ON ME?

From the various testimonies at the AEG trial we also know that Michael attended almost every rehearsal. He was at the Forum on June 4, Thursday (when Billie Jean was recorded), June 5-6 (Friday-Saturday), and then on June 8 -11 (Monday-Thursday).

On June 12 (Friday) he “didn’t have a good rehearsal” as everyone later recalled and for June 13 (Saturday) Murray gave Michael a sick leave which was cancelled due to Gongaware’s interference (“I want to remind him who is paying his salary”). Not later than Tuesday June 16 Michael reappeared at a rehearsal again looking frightened but stoic according to Karen Faye and then attended every rehearsal up to June 18.

Here is Karen Faye’s tweet:

CONTRARY to Kenny Ortega’s testimony, Michael was at rehearsals on the 16,17,18, and 19. And before that Michael was working at Culver City on the short film. He was trying very hard to be at rehearsals. http://tl.gd/mnuvhp

Indeed, at the beginning of June Michael went to Culver studios every day where he sang, danced and took part in shooting the videos for the so-called Dome Project. Knowing that he was to be recorded there it was evidently very important for him to look presentable in the video and this was probably one of the ideas of all those cosmetic procedures.

The Dome Project would consist of seven works: Smooth Criminal (Jackson inserted into classic 2D black-and-white film noir chase sequence); Thriller (3-D movie starting in a haunted house with a ghostly image of Vincent Price, then moving into a graveyard where the dead awaken); Earth Song (3D short film featuring little girl who wanders through rain forest, takes a nap and dreams of the splendor of nature, and awakens to find the natural world has been devastated); They Don’t Care About Us (a/k/a Drill, 2D film in which a sea of soldiers march in unison; 10 male dancers replicated hundreds of times); MJ Air (3-D movie in which a 707 jet pulls into the frame; hole was to open in screen for Michael Jackson to enter; jet flies away); The Final Message (3-D movie of little girl from rain forest embracing the earth); and The Way You Make Me Feel (2D theatrical background featuring male dancers fashioned as historical construction workers).
http://lesliemjhu.blogspot.ru/2009/07/this-is-it-tour-rehearsals-details.html

Yes, Michael missed some rehearsals in early June but there was nothing tragic about it. He indeed knew his schedule and was waiting for Ortega to build the house so that he could come and paint the front door. Ortega’s and Phillips’ complaints that Michael “wasn’t working hard enough” were completely groundless and their demands that he should attend rehearsals by all means were unforgivable.

It is essential to remember Michael was not obliged to attend rehearsals  and everyone admitted it including Randy Phillips himself:

Phillips said he does not remember ever seeing a contract where the artist is required to rehearse. The only requirement an artist had is to deliver a class act show, Phillips explained.
“Enrique Iglesias never showed up to rehearsals in the last tour Phillips did”, the exec said. “I thought it was odd, but Enrique Iglesias showed up in Boston, did an amazing show, got great reviews”.

There is no word to describe Randy Phillips’ hypocrisy when he pretends he didn’t slap Michael or yell at him “so that the walls shook”. In a free and civilized society even the boss, not to mention anyone else is not allowed to slap people and this is what real freedom is all about. However Randy Phillips is paying only lip service to these basic human rights:

Putnam: Can AEG Live force an artist to perform on a show?
Phillips: No, the artist has the ultimate veto power. We live in a free society, they are not my slaves. If the artist doesn’t want to perform, there’s nothing we can do.

Look at the other wild discrepancies between what the AEG bosses say and do:

Panish: You said no one could make MJ go to rehearsals?
Shawn Trell: Yes, that’s up to the artist.

However the email from Tim Woolley to Bob Taylor insurance broker 23 June reads: “Randy Phillips & Conrad Murray are responsible for making sure MJ attends rehearsal”.

And please note the sad fact that Michael Jackson knew that his partners were crossing the line but was helpless to change it:

Panish:”And MJ could say I don’t want to go to rehearsal, it’s not my thing, I don’t have to rehearse?”
Phillips: He did say that.”

No wonder Michael would constantly repeat: “Why can’t I choose?”

Even the tour dancers noticed that he was taken advantage of  and was not allowed to take his own decisions:

Kriyss Grant: I thought he was being taken advantage of in the beginning because he was older. … And you could tell he had something to say, but he wouldn’t say it.

“I just felt like sometimes they questioned Michael about stuff and I didn’t understand that because Michael is the artist,” he explains. “I felt like anything Michael says about entertainment, we should all just listen and follow his feelings. If he doesn’t feel right about something or if something’s not right, I felt like it should just go. He should just have that right to do that.

For me it was just questionable… I’m trying to find the right way to say it… If they really were pushing him to do this or if he knew what was supposed to be done. I just felt like at the bottom line, as an artist, you should have your say. If you don’t feel right about anything you shouldn’t do it.

At the AEG trial Gongaware said that he never required Michael to rehearse because it was not part of the deal and he knew Michael’s nature and method – once the lights went up he would show up:

Gongaware explained MJ didn’t have to attend rehearsals, since it was not part of his deal. He said they never required an artist to rehearse. “I didn’t have any expectation”, Gongaware said regarding MJ rehearsing. He said that during the HIStory tour, MJ didn’t rehearse, nailed it.

“When it was game time, he would show up”, Gongaware explained. As to the email Gongaware wrote about calling MJ lazy, he said he used unfortunate choices of words, Michael didn’t like to rehearse.

Putnam: Why weren’t you concerned?
Gongaware: When the house lights would go up, he would show up.

Whatever Gongaware’s expectations were, he himself sent an email dated May 27, 2009 where he confirmed that the “kid” was healthy and rehearsing every day. The ABC tweets say:

Gongaware’s email on May 27, 2009: The Kid is healthy and rehearsing every day. He was still there at dance rehearsals at 9pm last night when I left.

Gongaware on June 5, 2009 in response to Sunday Mirror Query: “We can only make this work, of course, if MJ puts on the best show of his life. I’m here to tell you that he will. I have seen it for myself. Last night (June 4^th) he ran 9 songs with full band, singers and dancers”.

On June 15, 2009: “MJ didn’t have a good day Friday, didn’t show up Saturday…” [Kenny Ortega to Paul Gongaware]. Gongaware: “This was just Kenny wanting MJ to be on top of his show”. Paul Gongaware says Kenny can be a drama queen sometimes.

Yes, Kenny Ortega can be a drama queen as his performance at This is it showed and I wish AEG had danced not around Ortega and his whims but around Michael Jackson and his interests.

If they had they would have probably realized that Michael didn’t have a good day on Friday June 12 simply because he was tired after working 6 days a week.  Travis Payne said that all of them were very tired.

So what kind of a production organization was it if everyone was dead tired even before the tour started? And how did they expect these people to do a first class show during the tour then?

Travis Payne said:

“He seemed very tired, we all were”.

If you count how many rehearsals Michael attended in May-June 2009 and how many of them he missed you will have to  agree with Travis Payne that Michael missed no more than five rehearsals:

Q How many times did Mr. Jackson miss rehearsals?
A Not many.
Q Less the five times?
A Maybe about five.
Q Were these times in June or through the entire period of This Is It rehearsals?
A Not many more then 5 times during the company rehearsals with the whole group. April, May and June.

But if only five rehearsals were missed why would Ortega and Phillips trip on Michael Jackson then? And if the company was still behind schedule despite Michael being present at almost every rehearsal who was to blame for the unsuccessful production of the show then?

No, it was absolutely not Michael Jackson’s fault. They are simply trying to turn him into a scapegoat for their own ineptitude, hectic production organization and greediness that prompted them to cut the period of rehearsals by at least two weeks at the expense of the tour time which they extended to sell more tickets.

AN INTERVENTION MEETING

As to Michael’s attendance of Klein’s office in June 2009 there is very little left to tell.

Part 5 of the invoice

According to the invoice the next time Michael went to Klein’s office was on June 4. The medical records don’t mention this visit, but the procedures done to Michael on that day were Latisse, a lot of cleansing and Sunscreen. There were no injections of Demerol.

June 9 was Tuesday. The medical records show that Michael was given 200mg Demerol for acne surgery and Botox under the eyes. Klein prescribed Michael eye drops. In the invoice the same visit is marked as June 10th.

Seven days later on June 16 there was an unscheduled visit to Klein.  The medical records for that day register some work on his acne scars and hollows under the eyes (?) in the Right Upper Quadrant. The visit was at 1:00 pm. Only one injection of 100mg of Demerol was given.

Innocent as it was this visit to Klein did not go unnoticed by Michael’s partners.  The same day, on June 16th they arranged another meeting for Michael which was attended by Randy Phillips, Ortega, Frank Dileo and Murray. This meeting went into history as an “intervention” meeting.

At the meeting they evidently demanded that Michael should never see Klein again and Randy Phillips surely yelled at him (as he usually did) after which he nominated himself and Conrad Murray responsible for Michael’s attendance of rehearsals.

The ABC tweets from the AEG trial place the meeting on June 16th as they mention Phillips’ email to Tohme Tohme dated June 17 which in its turn refers to an intervention meeting held the previous day (June 16th):

Panish showed an email dated 6/17/09 from Phillips to Dr. Tohme: Kenny Ortega, Gongaware, DiLeo, his doctor named Conrad from Vegas and I have an intervention with him to get him to focus and come to rehearsals yesterday. Getting him fully engaged is difficult and the most pressing matter as we are only 20 days out from the first show.

Phillips said it was not an intervention, but a meeting. He said it had nothing to do with drugs.

Of course it had to do with those non-existent “drugs” as this intervention was directly connected with Michael’s unscheduled visit to Klein!

Murray or someone else reported Michael’s “misbehavior” to AEG which immediately reacted with an “intervention” – though there was absolutely nothing to intervene about.  It was evidently then that they decided to play tough love on Jackson, and pull the plug on the show in case he didn’t follow their rules. Otherwise he was to lose everything, even his kids.

Karen Faye’s text messages to her boyfriend on June 19^th confirm the fact of an “intervention” meeting and that Michael was threatened there with the worst that he could ever imagine:

“Didn’t get home until 2:30. KENNY WAS MAD” (all in caps).

“He and Randy Phillips and the doctor held a sort of intervention. MJ didn’t show till 9:30 p.m. Kenny told me AEG, (Randy Phillips) is funding his entire life right now. His house, food, kids, school, everything.”

“They told him they will” (all capitals) “PULL THE PLUG IF HE DOESN’T GET HIS SHIT TOGETHER. IF HE DOESN’T DO THIS, HE LOSES EVERYTHING, PROBABLY EVEN HIS KIDS.”

THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME

On Monday, June 22 Michael made his last visit to Klein’s office. It was a routine visit with Restylane used for his scars in the Right Upper Quandrant.  Only 100mg of Demerol was used and the visit would have been unremarkable if Klein and his employees had not had a strange feeling that they were seeing Michael for the last time. 

Klein said: “He was not in terrible pain when I saw him. He danced in the office, and he danced for my patients”. However he and Jason Pfeiffer added: “He was saying goodbyes the week before passing. Everyone was creeped out by it”.

Lou Ferrigno also had a strange feeling that something bad was going to happen. According to TMZ Ferrigno’s last meeting took place two weeks before Michael’s death:

Lou says he had been training Michael 2 to 3 times a week for the tour … and aside from seeming “very stressed out,” he appeared in good health.

And this is eerie … Lou says as he left Michael’s house the last time — two weeks before MJ’s death — Jackson said, “Take care of yourself.” Lou said, “I’m going to see you next week.” Michael just repeated, “Take care of yourself.” Lou feels Michael knew something bad was about to happen.

http://www.tmz.com/2011/09/27/lou-ferrigno-michael-jackson-mj-cardio-health-dr-conrad-murray-manslaughter-trial-case-gym-workout-cardio-treadmill-personal-trainer-fitness/

Of course people who were close to Michael could tell that something was terribly wrong even from the look on his face. This wrong was the unbearable, unjust and unforgivable pressure put on Michael by his partners.

Each time someone from AEG called Michael cried and once he even said to his son: “They are going to kill me”.

This heavy thought was the burden Michael was living with in the last weeks and days of his life and it was the reflection of that thought that people saw on his face.

Actually a week before his death Michael even asked someone a direct question: “You aren’t going to kill the artist, are you?”, only the lawyers, media and everybody else quickly swept that question under the rug so that no one even remembers it by now.

And this is why I am reminding you of it.

‘You aren’t going to kill the artist, are you?’ the King of Pop purportedly asked producers during his ‘This Is It’ tour.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/michael-jackson-feared-safety-emails-reveal-article-1.1358353

 

 

* * *

SUPPLEMENT

In a supplement to this post Klein explains how the invoice for his medical services to Michael Jackson came into TMZ possession as early as October 2009.

The handwritten medical records were not obtained until 2011 when they were subpoenaed by court for Murray’s trail.

By Arnold W. Klein on 28 October 2011
Arnold W. Klein, MD
Professor of Medicine and Dermatology
UCLA
Klein Chair in Dermatology UCLA
Consultant to the General and Plastic Surgery Devices Panel of the FDA
“The Most Innovative & Famous Cosmetic Dermatologist in the World”
BevHills Times Magazine
Subject: Hipaa Violation Report
I am Dr. Arnold Klein of 9615 Brighton Way Ste M-110 Beverly Hills, CA90210.  I am filing this report of a HIPAA violation regarding the records of my former patient, Mr. Michael Jackson.

Doctors frequently use medical software systems both for records and insurance billing these doctors input billing data, the patient’s name, billing amount, type of treatment, diagnosis, type of drugs prescribed and administered, and the date of service. This is essentially the record system in my office.  On October 27, 2009, without my permission my lawyers Richard Charnley and Brad Boyer of the law firm of Ropers, Majeski, Kohn and Bentley of 515 Flower Street Ste 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90011 in collusion with my former employee Jason Pfeiffer and former accountant Muhammad Kihilji essentially released Michael Jackson’s medical records in court supposedly to get me paid by the Jackson estate.

I did find out until recently that this was the manner in which the mass media got hold of my records. They released the software bills showing line by line the treatment details of each visit that was unpaid at the time of Michael’s untimely death. Mr. Charnley and Mr. Khilji then went on to release the entire patient chart of Michael Jackson including my notes written on the patient file to various individuals on the Internet. I recently found a copy on the office computer from Mr. Khilji.

This unauthorized release of Michael Jackson’s records has caused my practice untold damage and has spurned a media circus. It has given tabloids and trashy media free access to Mr. Jackson’s private medical information.  Mr. Jason Pfeiffer has tried to capitalize on the hype and has gone on television to publicly discuss the records and my treatments on television.  It should be noted that Jason Pfeiffer, Muhammad Khilji with the assistance of Richard Charnley have embezzled over 12 million dollars from me leaving me in bankruptcy court. The have made illegal loans, stolen my identity, written checks, taken out loans, open and closed bank accounts, and depleted my retirement fund.

These individuals did this without my permission but I have reason to believe the concert promoter’s AEG is involved in that they have been in contact with Charnely.

Once released my records have been totally misinterpreted. They have been used by TMZ, The Beast, Anderson Cooper and various other media sources to obscure the real facts and individuals responsible for Mr. Michael Jackson’s death. First these records are not simply my records but that of three physicians treating Mr. Jackson: Myself, David Rish and Ilya Reyder. Michael was treated by me to rebuild his face for the “This is It  Tour.”

Injection sessions to rebuild his face from the consequences of faulty plastic surgery took 3-4 hours and he was given Demerol for pain relief during these procedures. Please note the entire month of May I was out of the country so injections he received during that time were not mine. Addiction requires the frequency and dose of medication to increase. As my treatments with Michael became less lengthily the dose of Demerol that was used and the frequency of visits was greatly reduced. The figures that have been erroneously quoted to the public indicate a grossly increased frequency of visits and size of dose than that actually used.

Being a recognized authority on addiction and Mr. Jackson’s physician I was well aware of his long-standing problem with Propothol created by a plastic surgeon that Mr. Jackson subsequently discharged and was placed in a mental institution. Please understand what you have experienced and I have suffered is an attempt by the greedy parties responsible for Michael Jackson’s death to use me as a scapegoat. They have defamed my name and attempted to destroy me. My relationship with Mr. Jackson taught me many things one of which was the ability to survive. Now it is my turn to take action against the media and finally reveal the greedy and disgusting people who were truly responsible for Michael Jackson’s death.

http://mjmyinspiration.blogspot.ru/2011/10/who-killed-michae-jackson-please-read.html

I’m afraid that Klein was indeed turned into a scapegoat after Michael’s death. Everything under the sun was done at that time to distract attention from the real culprits and focus it on Arnold Klein.

But I’m not sure that it was only Klein’s lawyer Richard Charnley who disclosed his invoice of MJ medical procedures to the public. By now we know that the invoice was in Michael Kane’s possession when Michael was still alive and from the emails presented at the AEG trial it is clear that Kane and Phillips were freely discussing its entries as early as June 2009.

Apparently Phillips had access to them and this is why he answered Michael Kane that Klein “scared them to death because he was shooting him up with something”. The invoice did not say it was Demerol and just stated “I.M.injections” (intramuscular injections),  but coupled with their knowledge of Michael’s previous use of Demerol this was enough for AEG to be mad with Klein and regard him as the main villain versus their good doctor Conrad Murray.

At the AEG trial the fact that Randy Phillips had access to that invoice was not even disputed:

Promoter’s e-mail: Michael Jackson’s dermatologist ‘scares us to death’

By Alan Duke, CNN

June 12, 2013 — Updated 1040 GMT (1840 HKT)

Los Angeles (CNN) — AEG Live’s CEO wrote two days before Michael Jackson died that a doctor Jackson was seeing “scares us to death because he is shooting him up with something,” court testimony shows.

Randy Phillips’ e-mail could contradict his earlier testimony that he had no idea Jackson was getting prescription drugs while he was preparing for his comeback concerts.

On Monday, Panish confronted Phillips about an e-mail exchange that he had two days before Jackson’s death in which Phillips was asked if Dr. Arnold Klein was “on the list of doctors that will help get us from today to the opening night.”

“He scares us to death because he is shooting him up with something,” Phillips replied.

Michael Kane, who was Jackson’s business manager, shared with Phillips that Klein’s office sent him a $48,000 bill for Jackson’s frequent visits to his Beverly Hills dermatology clinic in the months before his death.

Klein’s invoice said Jackson had been treated with Restalyne, Botox and unidentified drug injections, Kane wrote to Phillips.

“There were a lot of bills for injections, I didn’t know what it was,” Phillips said in his deposition before the trial.

Klein or his staff injected Jackson with 6,500 milligrams of Demerol during the last three months of his life, according to documents and testimony at Murray’s criminal trial.

“Since we owe him $48K and he wants payment, maybe I should stop paying him so he would stop shooting him up,” Kane told Phillips. “I have the details of what he is doing.”

It was unclear why Kane would share Jackson’s medical records with an AEG Live executive since the company’s lawyers insist they were not involved with and did not pry into Jackson’s health care.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/11/showbiz/jackson-death-trial/

I don’t think that it would be a too big stretch of imagination to assume that AEG had access to Klein’s medical records and that it was probably them who disclosed to the media Dr.Klein’s invoice, especially since they indeed were in contact with Klein’s lawyer.

Bad publicity about Michael could never hurt AEG and Conrad Murray needed this information to build his defense strategy at the future trial. After the invoice was made public Murray’s lawyers indeed claimed that Demerol was the core of the whole problem. Murray’s trial overturned this theory however now the media is starting it all over again as the recent UK Channel 5 program shows it.

Part 2 of this post will have a transcript of DDA David Walgren’s discussion of Klein’s medical records with Dr. Waldman. In his cross-examination the defense addiction expert witness will finally have to admit that Michael was “probably” not addicted to Demerol and that the symptoms Michael was displaying at the end of June could not be connected to this drug.