Frustrated because his sleeping pills weren’t working, Michael Jackson reportedly enlisted his two German doctors to give him propofol two times in the mid-1990s, ex-wife Debbie Rowe testified Wednesday in the singer's wrongful-death trial.
Rowe, the mother of Jackson's two oldest children, was called as a witness for AEG Live to demonstrate that the King of Pop had a history with the powerful surgical anesthetic that eventually killed him.
Members of the Jackson family are suing AEG Live, the concert promoter in charge of the late singer's "This Is It" tour. The family claims AEG negligently hired, retained, and supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, pressured the doctor to get the singer to rehearsals, and failed to get Jackson help in spite of the
many signs that he was in trouble, CNN reported.
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Jackson died June 25, 2009, at age 50 of cardiac arrest brought on by an overdose of propofol, which Murray reportedly used every night for two months to treat the singer's insomnia. Murray was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his role in Jackson's death.
AEG Live's lawyers argue that the company's executives had no way of knowing Murray was using propofol to treat Jackson.
Rowe testified that Jackson had his personal physician Dr. Allen Metzger arrange for two German anesthesiologists to inject him with propofol in a Munich hotel, where the singer was staying during a 1997 concert tour.
"Michael respected doctors immensely, that they went to school, that they studied and to do no harm," Rowe said on the stand. "Unfortunately, some of the doctors decided that when Michael was in pain or something that they would try to outbid on who could give him the better drug and so he listened to those doctors."
Rowe said the doctors "were having a pissing contest over who gave him the better drug."
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He "slept" — or was unconscious — for eight hours after his first propofol treatment. He reportedly used the drug again three days later.
Rowe and Jackson were married in 1996 and divorced three years later. Rowe gave up her parental rights in 2001.
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Michael Jackson Doctor Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter
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