Dr. Alon Steinberg testified - Day 11 -

Dr. Alon Steinberg, one of the leading cardiologists for the California Medical Board said that Murray demonstrated an "extreme deviation" from standard practices in his care for Michael Jackson. 

Dr. Steinberg made it clear he is a cardiologist not an anesthesiologist.

Dr. Steinberg said he reviewed Murray's case relying solely on transcripts from his police interview because he wanted "to judge Dr. Murray on his very own words."

Click here to watch part 2 of Dr. Steinberg's testimony

Steinberg found several deviations of standard of care, each one amounting to gross negligence.

Propofol should only be used for procedures in a hospital and should never be used for sleep.

Steinberg said he's never heard of anyone using Propofol for sleep.

Murray lacked basic equipment in case of an emergency.

Steinberg says Murray had no idea what he was doing. What he should have done is used Flumazenil, an antidote to Propofol, call 911 and started bagging him, to give him air, instead he started giving him chest compressions which he didn't need since his heart was still going.

Murray didn't call 911. Steinberg told jurors the first thing Murray should have done was call 911.

When he does finally call for help, he calls Michael Jackson's assistant.

Steinberg says that for every minute of delay there's less and less chance the patient will survive.

Steinberg called Murray's behavior "bizarre."

Click here to watch part 4 of Dr. Steinberg's testimony

Murray did not take notes. This is important not only for insurance and legal purposes but also to make sure everything is documented so that no mistakes are made. Not one single vital sign was written down. When he was at the emergency room he couldn't tell doctors when or what he administered.

Steinberg said that "if these deviations hadn't happened, Mr. Jackson would still be alive."

He said, according to the transcripts, Murray gave Micahel a large quantity of Propofol in addition to the 25 mg which Murray declared (during cross-examination, Murray's lawyer argued Murray never mentioned when describing the night of June 25th. After an long back-and-forth, Steinberg shrugged, "Can we agree to disagree?").

Murray's lawyers asked Steinberg if it was possible Murray left the room for more than two minutes, suggesting Murray may have had his timetable confused.

Dr. Alon Steinberg concluded that Murray's actions "directly contributed to the untimely death of Michael Jackson."

Murray's lawyer announced in court this morning that Murray is abandoning the argument that Michael Jackson accidentally killed himself by orally self-administering Propofol.

Michael Flanagan said in court today that an independent study by the defense showed swallowing Propofol would not produce fatal results.

Conrad Murray's attorneys are trying to change Dr. Steinberg's story, trying to convince jurors that Michael Jackson had way more than 2 minutes to self-administer the fatal dose of Propofol.

Murray's attorney J. Michael Flanagan suggested that perhaps the 2-minute window Murray described in his infamous police interview wasn't so accurate.  Murray told cops he left to go to the bathroom, and when he came back Michael wasn't breathing.

It's very improbable that during the 2-minute window, Michael Jackson woke up, grabbed the propofol self-administer it.

So during his cross-examination of cardiologist Alon Steinberg, Flanagan said, "Let's assume Dr. Murray was gone for a period of time longer than two minutes ... maybe it was ten ... fifteen ... twenty ... what is it about that makes him [Michael Jackson] savable?"

In the hour before Murray began resuscitating Michael Jackson, Murray was on the phone for 45 minutes as resulted by the phone records. 

For these reasons, the defense developped the theory according to wich Michael Jackson would have had more time to awaken and self-inject propofol.   

Click here to watch part 7 of Dr. Steinberg's testimony

Click here to watch part 10 of Dr. Steinberg's testimony

MJFS - tmz