By Newsday Reporter Tuesday, June 30 2009

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Michael's family: A family photo shows Michael Jackson with his children, Prince Michael II, Paris Michael Katherine, and Prince Michael Jr during a ...

Michael Jackson’s Trinidadian doctor Dr Conrad Murray performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) so vigorously on the pop star last Thursday that he cracked one or more of Jackson’s ribs, Murray’s lawyer said yesterday.

Houston-based lawyer Edward Chernoff, who accompanied Murray to a three-hour interview with police investigators on Saturday, yesterday told The New York Times, that Murray discovered Jackson unconscious after checking on him as he periodically did.

According to the Times report, “Dr Murray, Mr Chernoff said, began a desperate effort to save Mr Jackson, doing chest compressions so vigorously that he apparently cracked one or more of his ribs in the process.”

The report notes however that the injury “had no bearing on” Jackson’s death. Chernoff told the paper that Murray performed CPR correctly, notwithstanding concerns that CPR had apparently been performed while a frail Jackson lay on a bed, according to a report made to the American emergency hotline 911 by a Jackson staff member on Thursday. Medical practitioners advise that CPR is to always be performed on firm surfaces.

“It was desperate,” Chernoff was quoted in the Times report as saying, “somebody you did not expect to be in that condition all of a sudden is not breathing.”

In an interview with the American Broadcasting Corporation’s Good Morning America programme, Chernoff added that the bed was a “firm bed”.

Los Angeles police have already ruled out foul play in the case, but questions over Jackson’s medical condition at the time of death still remain. According to a report in the United Kingdom’s The Sun, Jackson, who was 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed only 112 pounds at the time of death. The star was said to have been “a virtual skeleton–barely eating and with only pills in his stomach at the time he died.”

According to the report which claimed to have been based on leaked details from an initial autopsy performed on Jackson, the singer’s, “hips, thighs and shoulders were riddled with needle wounds” believed to be the result of injections of narcotic painkillers, given three times a day for years. Jackson also “suffered several broken ribs as frantic rescuers pumped his chest after he collapsed in cardiac arrest” and “four injection sites were found above or near to” the King of Pop’s heart.

The report also claimed that Jackson was wearing a wig at the time of his death, with nothing but “peach fuzz” covering his scalp underneath. There were also reportedly “a mass of surgery scars” on Jackson’s body thought to be the legacy of at least 13 cosmetic operations.

However, the Los Angeles County coroner yesterday released a statement denying some — but not all–aspects of the report.

“The report that is being published did not come from this office. I don’t know where the information came from, or who that information came from. It is not accurate. Some of it is totally false,” the statement, quoted on the American celebrity site TMZ, read. Murray’s lawyers have denied the doctor administered the 50-year-old singer the powerful painkillers Demerol or OxyContin. The lawyers though have said Murray did prescribe medication to Jackson but they have not said what medication was prescribed. According to Chernoff in the report in the Times, though Murray is a cardiologist, Jackson was not known to have heart trouble and selected Murray to be his doctor during his series of London concerts “based on their friendship”. Murray reportedly told investigators that Jackson was “in good physical condition with no ailments or complaints that would explain his sudden death,” according to the Times.

“He said he had recently listened to Mr Jackson’s heart but the singer had not undergone a cardiac stress test recently because there were no abnormalities that would suggest it was necessary.”

Yesterday, as never before-seen family photos of Jackson and his three children continued to circulate on the internet, Jackson’s mother Katherine Jackson was granted temporary custody of the children by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff. Beckloff set a hearing date of July 6, as the Jackson family geared up for an expected custody battle with Debbie Rowe, the biological mother of two of Jackson’s three children. Prince Michael Jr, 12, Paris Michael Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7, are currently with their grandparents. The family also prepared to fight for Jackson’s estate with questions being raised over whether the singer left a valid will. According to TMZ, the family filed preliminary probate papers in court listing Jackson as dying “intestate”. But Jackson’s long-time lawyer John Branca, who orchestrated a US$45 million deal for Jackson to buy the Beatles catalogue in the 1980s, was said to be in possession of a will.

On Sunday, Jackson’s father Joe and sister Janet attended a star-studded tribute to the singer hosted by the Black Entertainment Television channel in Los Angeles.

“I have a lot of concerns. I can’t get into that, but I don’t like what happened,” Joe, 79, said shortly before the start of the tribute. His daughter Janet paid an emotional homage to her brother.

“My entire family wanted to be here tonight, but it was just too painful so they elected me to speak with all of you,” she said. “I’d just like to say that to you Michael is an icon. To us, Michael is family and he will forever live in all of our hearts.”

Joe yesterday said planning for the pop star’s funeral is awaiting results of a second autopsy.

Joe told reporters outside the family’s Southern California compound that the second autopsy was under way, and he expected the results soon. He denied reports that his son will be buried at his Neverland ranch.