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An overdose of the prescription drug Demerol would have stopped Michael Jackson breathing before causing brain damage, an expert said today.
Professor Steve Field, head of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said painkiller Demerol — or Pethidine — was a “drug of abuse” and similar to heroin.
He said: “If you are addicted then you need higher and higher doses to have any impact. A high dose would slow down breathing then make it stop altogether. If you are left long enough you get oxygen depletion to the body which damages tissues and leads to a cardiac arrest. This is why paramedics will try to get oxygen back in the body with resuscitation.”
Some countries including Australia have limited the use of Demerol after migraine patients started getting addicted to the drug. It is used in the UK still as a painkiller especially for women in childbirth. Jackson wrote about Demerol on his 1997 album Blood on the Dance Floor (right).
