Is it ever appropriate to cheer when a person is convicted of a crime? But, that’s exactly what happened outside the courtroom of the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor as he was found guilty today of manslaughter. When the verdict was announced, there were cheers outside the courtroom. Dr. Conrad Murray, the former personal physician of Michael Jackson, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of the pop star.
There goes the idea that “no one in healthcare ever wakes up in the morning planning to hurt someone”. It may have been his lack of knowledge, ignorance, incompetence or arrogance that caused Dr. Murray to behave in a way that caused another’s death. We may never know, but he is now a criminal and will be in prison for a long time.
It empowers advocates like myself to continue to suggest that patients and their family keep asking questions, go with your gut and don’t “assume” that things can’t go wrong. We may never know what really happened the night that Michael Jackson died and we won’t even ever know everything the jury knows, but I can tell you lives were tragically changed that fateful night in 2009 and again today - and I thinks it’s sad, hardly worth cheering about.
