Police Looking To Speak With Jackson Nurse Over Powerful Drug Found In Singer’s Home

Police are looking to speak with Michael Jackson’s nurse about a powerful drug found in the singer’s home at the time of his death.

According to NBC’s Dateline, authorities want to speak with Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who worked for the star, who has said Jackson asked her for Diprivan – also known as Propofol.

The drug, which is typically administered intravenously, is used in hospitals to induce rapid unconsciousness before medical procedures. According to Dateline, the drug is now a focus of the investigation surrounding the star’s death.

Lee previously stated that she received a frantic phone call from a member of Jackson’s staff, just four days before his death.

“He called and was very frantic and said, `Michael needs to see you right away.’ I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I could hear Michael in the background …, ‘One side of my body is hot, it’s hot, and one side of my body is cold. It’s very cold,’” Lee told the Associated Press. “I said, ‘Tell him he needs to go the hospital. I don’t know what’s going on, but he needs to go to the hospital … right away.

“At that point, I knew that somebody had given him something that hit the central nervous system,” she added. “He was in trouble Sunday and he was crying out.”

Jackson suffered cardiac arrest at his home in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles on June 25. He was pronounced dead later that day.

However, Lee noted Jackson wasn’t looking to get high from the powerful drug – but rather, find some relief from a reported bout with insomnia.

“He wasn’t looking to get high or feel good and sedated from drugs,” Lee told the AP. “This was a person who was not on drugs. This was a person who was seeking help, desperately, to get some sleep, to get some rest.”

However, because the drug is so powerful, medical officials have stated accidental death due to overdose can occur.

If someone takes too much of the drug, it can stop a person’s breathing. According to Dr. John Dombrowski, a member of the board of directors of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, an overdose from Propofol that stops breathing can result in a build up of carbon dioxide, causing the heart to bear erratically and leading to cardiac arrest.