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how does that work when they go on tour. i mean is it solid time or is there a break in between.the reason i ask is because prince was born during that tour time. when debbie testified in the 2005 trial appartently when she was ask a question about something she turned to michael and asked something like what tours did we go on. (luna jo 67 wdhtmj # 42, 44 something like that). makes me wonder if the whole thing wasn't more about debbie and prince being there .of course i am delusional.
Doc crocked for 10 years Stoned even while in O.R.BY GREG B. SMITH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERFriday, February 4th 2000, 2:12AMAn upper East Side doctor yesterday admitted he was stoned on illegal drugs for nearly a decade while administering anesthesia to patients.Dr. Neil Ratner - who used to work with such rock acts as Pink Floyd and Peter Frampton before becoming a physician - made the stunning admission while testifying against a former colleague at an insurance fraud trial in Manhattan Federal Court."In retrospect, I was pretty stoned a lot of the times I was giving anesthesia," Ratner said, recalling how he once passed out during an operation after mistakenly injecting himself with a drug that causes temporary paralysis.Ratner, 48, dressed in a conservative black suit, testified that he and prominent fertility specialist Dr. Niels Lauersen routinely lied on insurance forms to get coverage for treatments not covered by insurers. Ratner, who has pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, is cooperating with prosecutors.But before he could help Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Chung make her case, he admitted he'd been addicted to a variety of drugs while practicing medicine in the 1980s."There are very few drugs that I didn't do at one time or another," he said, sparking laughter from a courtroom audience that included many of Lauersen's patients.Ratner - who earned his medical degree in Mexico - testified that in the 1970s he tried his hand managing such rock stars as Edgar Winter, Peter Frampton, and Emerson Lake and Palmer, and co-producing albums by Pink Floyd and Three Dog Night.But his music industry work led to increased involvement in drugs. When he quit the music business in 1975, he didn't give up drugs."I started smoking marijuana, and it progressed from there to pills to cocaine, psychedelics," he said, recalling that he smoked pot and snorted coke daily during medical school.When Ratner opened his own anesthesia practice, he dropped cocaine but continued with marijuana and LSD."But not in the office," he said. "That was a weekend sort of thing."Soon, however, his addictions invaded his professional life. Ratner began ingesting pills and injecting narcotics, often writing for himself the kind of bulk prescriptions that only anesthesiologists are allowed to write.Before long, he was stealing drugs from doctors' offices and replacing the narcotics with water. He said he sometimes used the watered-down drugs during operations, "compensating," he said, by "adjusting the levels" of anesthesia.By 1989, he said, he was injecting himself with drugs "every few hours or so."That May, during an operation, Ratner said, he was so high that he mistakenly injected himself with a syringe he thought had morphine but actually was filled with a paralyzing agent. "I ended up on the floor paralyzed and barely able to breathe," he said. "The people around were horrified. They thought I had a heart attack."After that, Ratner said, he entered a rehabilitation program for doctors and told people he was going on vacation at an Arizona ranch.Thirty days later, he was back practicing anesthesia at New York clinics, which he continues to do today. Ratner was never disciplined for his actions. State health officials said he has a spotless record.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
STATE TO PROBE O.R.DOCBY GREG B. SMITH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERSaturday, February 5th 2000, 2:12AMThe state health commissioner yesterday launched a probe into an upper East Side anesthesiologist who admitted being stoned during surgery for most of the 1980s.Dr. Neil Ratner testified in a Manhattan insurance fraud case that his drug addiction got so bad he passed out during surgery after injecting himself with a paralytic substance in 1989."I was pretty stoned a lot of the time I was giving anesthesia," Ratner testified Thursday during the trial of his former colleague, prominent fertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen.After Ratner's testimony appeared in the Daily News yesterday, Commissioner Antonia Novello ordered a thorough investigation of why the state was never informed of Ratner's drug problems."We're going to take swift and decisive action," said spokesman John Signor. The investigation came as one of the three New York doctors who employs Ratner expressed shock at his drug history."He never mentioned a word to us," said Dr. Brad Jacobs, a Park Ave. plastic surgeon. "I will have to make a decision about his potential position here shortly . . . I don't want my patients to run away thinking, 'Oh, my God!' "Jacobs said Ratner handled anesthesia on a case yesterday morning. When the operation was done, Ratner confessed his past to Jacobs.Jacobs said he was extremely upset that there was no record with state health officials of Ratner's problem when he checked Ratner's background before contracting with him."There was no way of telling," he said. "I always check out everybody who works here."During a plastic surgery operation at an upper East Side doctor's office in May 1989, at a time when Ratner said he was injecting himself with narcotics "every few hours," he mistakenly picked up a syringe filled with a paralytic agent.He collapsed in the middle of the operation. Ratner testified that those present were "horrified," but they thought he was having a heart attack.Ratner - who said he once managed rock stars such as Peter Frampton and Edgar Winter and co-produced a Pink Floyd album - pleaded guilty in May 1998 to insurance fraud and agreed to testify against Lauersen.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
CROCKED DOC WON'T SAY IF HE GAVE DRUGS TO JAXBY GREG B. SMITH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERWednesday, February 9th 2000, 2:12AMAn upper East Side doctor who shot himself up with morphine while treating patients said yesterday that he was pop star Michael Jackson's tour doctor in 1997.Dr. Neil Ratner, testifying yesterday in the insurance fraud trial of high-profile infertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen, was evasive when asked if he had administered drugs to the Gloved One."Would you give Michael Jackson drugs?" Lauersen's demanded attorney, Theodore Wells."I'm not going to discuss a patient's personal medical condition," Ratner replied.In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, Jackson's attorney, Brian Wolf, said the singer "denies that Dr. Ratner ever prescribed any inappropriate medications or treatments."Wolf insisted that any medical treatment is confidential and said Ratner was correct not to disclose it.Ratner, a 49-year-old ex-rock 'n' roll drummer and manager of Peter Frampton and Edgar Winter, has been on the stand for days, admitting he repeatedly took drugs while caring for patients during the 1980s.In May 1989, he collapsed after shooting himself up with a paralytic agent during cosmetic surgery on the upper East Side.Ratner, who still practices in Manhattan, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and is cooperating with Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White in the case against Lauersen in hopes of reducing his prison sentence.Lauersen is accused of lying to insurers to make them pay for $2.2 million in infertility treatments the companies traditionally don't cover. Ratner was Lauersen's chief anesthesiologist for the past decade.Ratner, who graduated from a medical school in Mexico and cut his ponytail two weeks before trial, said he traveled with Jackson as paid tour doctor during the African leg of the singer's 1997 world tour.When Wells pressed Ratner about giving drugs to Jackson, prosecutor Christine Chung asked to discuss the matter outside the presence of the jury.At Manhattan Federal Judge William Pauley's bench, Wells insisted that Ratner had, in fact, given Jackson unnamed drugs."I want to explore the implication, and I think what he is doing is illegal," Wells added.But prosecutor Chung argued that the mention of Jackson was distracting jurors from the case at hand. Pauley warned Wells to avoid further references to the Gloved One.During cross-examination, Ratner then repeatedly dodged Wells' questions about whether he administered drugs to anyone on the tour."In the course of performing your job as tour doctor, did you have occasion to administer narcotics to persons on the tour?" Wells asked.Ratner: "No."Wells: "Drugs?"Ratner: "What is your definition of drugs?"Wells fired back, "You're the anesthesiologist, you define it."Pauley instructed the jury to ignore Wells' comment.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
souza : what were the circumstances of michael being ask if this doctor put him under, this case or something else?
An upper East Side doctor who shot himself up with morphine while treating patients said yesterday that he was pop star Michael Jackson's tour doctor in 1997.Dr. Neil Ratner, testifying yesterday in the insurance fraud trial of high-profile infertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen, was evasive when asked if he had administered drugs to the Gloved One."Would you give Michael Jackson drugs?" Lauersen's demanded attorney, Theodore Wells."I'm not going to discuss a patient's personal medical condition," Ratner replied.In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, Jackson's attorney, Brian Wolf, said the singer "denies that Dr. Ratner ever prescribed any inappropriate medications or treatments."Wolf insisted that any medical treatment is confidential and said Ratner was correct not to disclose it.
I believe Dr. Ratner did put MJ under, however at least he was an anestelogist, so he knew what he was doing and he had all the right equiptment. I am not saying that it was right but he he was licensed .Murray on the other hand did not know what he was doing and he killed MJ.