‘Insomniac MJ begged for sedatives’

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Los Angeles: Pop icon Michael Jackson suffered from severe insomnia and reportedly begged for powerful sedatives months before his death, a nurse, who worked for the singer has claimed.

Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse, said Jackson begged for the medicines despite knowing their side-effects as the singer struggled to sleep.

Lee first met Jackson in January this year to treat his children for a common cold and she claims that she rejected his requests for Diprivan and informed him of the side effects.

“I told him this medication is not safe. He said, ‘I just want to get some sleep. You don’t understand. I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep.’ I told him ‘If you take this you might not wake up,’” Lee told CNN in an interview.

However, Jackson’s family attorney Londell McMillan also refuted her claims.

“I wonder why someone would make a comment about drugs when they haven’t seen him take the drug or anyone who administered it,” McMillan said.

Diprivan, known by its generic name Propofol, is administered intravenously as an anesthetic during surgeries and an initial dose puts a person to sleep but an overdose of the medicine can lead to cardiac arrest, the news channel said.

Jackson, 50, died on Thursday after a suspected cardiac arrest. His toxicology results, which will determine the cause of death, are still awaited.

The nurse also claimed that just four days before Jackson’s death, she had received a call from his staff member, who said that Jackson felt that one side of his body was cold while the other hot.