LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson’s arms were covered with punctures, his face and neck were scarred and he had tattooed eyebrows and lips, but he wasn’t the sickly skeleton of a man portrayed by tabloids, according to his autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press.
In fact, the Los Angeles County coroner’s report shows Jackson was a fairly healthy 50-year-old before he died of an overdose. His weight of 136 pounds was in the acceptable range for a 5-foot-9 man. His heart was strong with no sign of plaque buildup. And his kidneys and most other major organs were normal.
Setback in doc’s defense
Still, Jackson had health issues: arthritis in the lower spine and some fingers, and mild plaque buildup in his leg arteries. Most serious was his lungs, which the autopsy report said were chronically inflamed and had reduced capacity that might have left him short of breath.
However, according to the document, the lung condition was not serious enough to be a direct or contributing cause of death.
“His overall health was fine,” said Dr. Zeev Kain, chairman of the anesthesiology department at the University of California, Irvine, who reviewed a copy of the autopsy report for the AP. “The results are within normal limits.”
Kain was not involved in the autopsy. The full autopsy report has not been released publicly.
Jackson died at his rented Los Angeles mansion June 25 after his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, administered the anesthetic propofol and two other sedatives to get the chronic insomniac to sleep, court documents state. Murray is the target of what Los Angeles police term a manslaughter investigation. His lawyer Edward Chernoff did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Aside from propofol and the sedatives, the only substances found in Jackson’s system were the local anesthetic Lidocaine, sometimes used to numb injection sites, and ephedrine, a commonly used resuscitation stimulant.
No other drugs — legal or otherwise — were detected, nor was any alcohol.
The autopsy findings cut off a potential defense for Murray — that Jackson hid serious pre-existing conditions that increased the risk of death from the drugs he willingly took. Even if he did hide a condition such as his weakened lungs, a prosecutor could argue Murray should have detected the condition before administering drugs, said Michael Brennan, a clinical law professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in criminal defense.
The autopsy report provided details about Jackson’s physical state from head to toes.
He had a O-inch scar behind his left ear and another apparent scar behind his right ear. He had a scar beside each of his nostrils and a 4-inch scar on his right shoulder. He had a pair of additional scars about 3 inches long at the base of his neck and smaller scars on his arms and wrist. He also had a small scar near his navel and a 2-inch scar on the right-hand side of his abdomen.
Plastic-surgery scars
Kain said most of the scars appeared to be from plastic surgery though others, like a scar on the knee, could have been from a medical procedure.
The medical examiner found numerous punctures on both arms and on a knee and ankle. The leg punctures could have been from intravenous therapies not described in the autopsy report, Kain said.
Jackson had several tattoos, all them cosmetic, including dark tattoos in the areas of both eyebrows and under his eyes, and a pink tattoo around his lips.
