Terra Sigillata cited as source for ABC News Michael Jackson story, sorta

While invoking my little-known real name, the ABC News Medical Unit shows its commitment to providing scientifically-objective and medically-valid commentary to the Michael Jackson circus.

The post cited was from 26 June where I discussed the first Michael Jackson revelation that he had repeatedly been given the unusual opioid drug, meperidine, presumably for his chronic back pain.

From this morning's ABC News story by Vic Walter and Richard Esposito with contributions from JoAnna Schaffhausen:

One pharmacologist blogged about [p]ropofol this week and explained in his science blog how Demerol abuse could have caused cardiac problems and could have increased his risk for heart rhythm disturbances from the [p]ropofol: "As I wrote last week in my blog post on Demerol® (meperidine), Jackson's reported long-term use of this analgesic for back pain may have already primed him for cardiac problems due to the accumulation of a toxic metabolite, normeperidine," Dr. David Kroll said. "However, most relevant to the Jackson case is that propofol can cause cardiac tachyarrhythmias (rhythmic disturbances at high heart rate), especially in people predisposed to cardiac problems."

Unfortunately, I drew no direct hyperlink to the blog and my real-life academic affiliation(s) were not noted. But the quote was a good one and meperdine (together with Diprivan/propofol) continues, as far as I know, to be a viable avenue of investigation in the death of Mr Jackson.

I also enjoyed that fact, however, that my quote was missing from the responses of other experts to the reporters' queries for impressions on the list of drugs found at the Jackson home as cited by The Sun:

Medical experts contacted by the ABC News Medical Unit said that the list of 20 drugs reportedly found in Jackson's rented home was "jaw-dropping" and "amazing."

"That list is enough to put down a swarm of zombies," said Richard Bradley, Chief, Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

"The list ...would be typical for an anesthesia cart in an operating room or what you might find in a recovery room, ICU, ED, etc.. Definitely not what you'd expect to find in a home," said Joseph Ornato, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jaw-dropping? Amazing? C'mon, my learned colleagues, you could have done better than that.

For the record, my response was, "Holy shit!"

There are still some things that can be said on-blog that are off limits to the MSM.

Unless you are The Onion.