One day after Michael Jackson’s sudden death, speculation was already turning yesterday to what killed the 50-year-old “King of Pop” just weeks before his long-awaited series of comeback concerts.
Jackson died on Thursday afternoon at a Los Angeles hospital, where he had been rushed in full cardiac arrest after collapsing at his nearby rental home.
Few details of the circumstances surrounding his death were known, but the entertainer was reportedly unconscious and not breathing by the time he arrived at UCLA Medical Center, and doctors were unable to revive him. His body was flown by helicopter from the hospital to the coroner’s office late on Thursday.
PHOTO: AP
Brian Oxman, a Jackson family spokesman, told CNN on Thursday the family had been concerned about his health and had tried in vain to take care of him for months.
“Michael appeared at rehearsals a couple of times, he was very seriously trying to be able to do those rehearsals,” Oxman said of Jackson’s preparations for a series of 50 concerts that were scheduled to begin in London next month.
“His use of medications had gotten in the way, his injuries which he had sustained performing, where he had broken a vertebrae and he had broken his leg from a fall on the stage, were getting in the way,” Oxman told CNN.
PHOTO: AFP
Authorities had scheduled an autopsy for later yesterday, but they said it could take weeks to determine a cause of death, which will likely have to wait for the return of toxicology tests. Those tests will determine if Jackson had any drugs in his system.
Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide division searched Jackson’s home in the upscale Holmby Hills neighborhood at the behest of Chief William Bratton, but they called the investigation an “every day” event.
Jackson had spent two months rehearsing for the London concerts, including on Wednesday night at the huge Staples Center arena.
The promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson passed a four-and-a-half hour physical examination.
“I can’t stop crying over the sad news,” Madonna said in a statement. “I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats but his music will live on forever.”
He is survived by three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony.
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