Saturday, July 18, 2009

Why Are Michael Jackson Autopsy Results Taking So Long?







'Especially in a case like this, you want to make sure you have it right,' coroner's spokesperson says.


Almost a month has passed since Michael Jackson's death, and we still don't have a definitive answer about what killed the 50-year-old King of Pop. After an initial autopsy, the cause of death was deferred in order to complete more toxicology tests. On Thursday, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said it could take another two weeks to get the results of those tests before determining what might have caused the singer to go into cardiac arrest on June 25 at his Los Angeles home.

Dr. Joshua Perper, Chief Medical Examiner for Broward County, Florida — and the man the world came to know as the lead forensic investigator in the probe into the death of Anna Nicole Smith two years ago.

Because the Jackson death has such worldwide interest, Perper said the coroner's officials want to make sure they don't overlook anything in their investigation.

"They want to make sure they aren't missing any additional drugs that might be in the system but are more difficult to detect," said Perper, who has no first-hand knowledge of the case. "They might take more tests than what they thought initially was necessary, because perhaps they found some level of drugs so far that are not sufficient to explain the death."


Perper said some drugs are not always evident in preliminary screenings. Jackson was reported to have been taking a number of anti-anxiety and painkilling prescription medications, as well as the anesthetic Diprivan at the time of his death, and based on interviews with Jackson physicians and witnesses, investigators may be expanding the screen to include other drugs.


Asked about the reports of Jackson's alleged use of the fast-acting Diprivan, an anesthetic not intended for use outside of the supervision of a trained anesthesiologist in a doctor's office, Perper said that while the drug does leave the system quickly, it's unlikely that investigators will not find some traces of it if Jackson used it before his death.

Even after all that legwork, Harvey said it is possible that officials will never know what killed Jackson. "In a small percentage of cases, we find no cause of death after the autopsy," he said. "But we will have something to announce at the end, even if we don't find anything at all."

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