FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Newport Beach, California, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) April 29, 2011 — No amount of legal defense attorney posturing can relieve Conrad Murray of his responsibility to have watched & monitored his patient,” says propofol expert, renowned anesthesiologist, Barry Friedberg, M.D.

Unlikely the Jackson family will get meaningful justice from the criminal justice system. Even if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, accused Conrad Murray only faces a maximum of 4 years time. Hardly justice for killing Michael Jackson.

Jackson’s death is the sad (and preventable) tale of anesthesia over medication. Yet the vast majority of Americans are routinely over medicated every day when going under anesthesia for surgery. Why? Their anesthesiologist is not measuring their brain.

“Brain monitors are found in 75% of US hospitals, yet only used 25% of the time, mostly because patients simply do not know to ask for one,” says Friedberg.

Anesthesia over medication is especially perilous for people over 50. Nearly 40% of people leave the hospital in a ‘brain fog,’ clinically called Post Operative Cognitive Dysfunction (POCD).

One person dies daily from anesthesia over medication. But death is not the worst result of the nefarious practice of routine anesthesia over medication.

The movie ‘Awake’ terrorized Americans about being awake during surgery. However, waking up in the middle of surgery is a very slight risk that’s 82% reduced when a brain monitor is used.

The most serious risk faced from routine anesthesia over medication is waking up with dementia after anesthesia (DAA) & never again being the same person who went under anesthesia for surgery.

“Going under anesthesia without a brain monitor is like playing Russian roulette with your brain,” says Dr. Friedberg. “You have to live with the long term effects of your short term care.”

The most meaningful justice for Michael Jackson’s family will to have his death serve as a wake up to all Americans about the critical need for brain monitoring to avoid anesthesia over medication.

Goldilocks anesthesia is not too much or too little but always just the right amount.

Over- and under- anesthesia is 2 sides of the same coin: failure to measure your brain!

Download three free letters to help you get Goldilocks anesthesia @ www.drbarryfriedberg.com

Propofol ketamine is the ‘lemonade’ I made from Martha’s ‘lemon’ or avoidable demise.

Had it not been for this plastic surgeon’s refusing to allow me to use narcotics or smelly gases, I would have never been motivated to find an alternative anesthetic paradigm.

Little did I know, 19 years ago, how dramatically for the better that motivation would change the lives of my patients as well as my professional life.

Louis Pasteur said, ‘Luck favors only the prepared mind.’

So when I heard Charles Vinnik talk about Valium-ketamine anesthesia @ the Hyatt Newporter in December 1991, I was ‘prepared’ to seek an alternative.

My first insight was finding that sleep doses of propofol blocked ketamine hallucinations every bit as well as Vinnik’s Valium.

Later, once I saw that giving 50 mg ketamine (aka the ‘nifty fifty’) before injecting the patient would prevent surgeons from inflicting pain on their unconscious, helpless patients, it became a matter of conscience to no longer give narcotics or smelly gases for cosmetic surgery.

Incorporating the brain monitor in December 1997 allowed others to reproducibly create my paradigm as well as giving every patient a custom tailored experience as opposed to ‘one size fits most’ anesthesia.

However, it was not until I experienced the absence of pain for 4 days after my own total hip replacement in May 2008 that I realized the ‘nifty fifty’ was applicable to any time the skin is breached for surgery.

While writing ‘Getting Over Going Under’ to help the general public deal with anesthesia fears, Michael Jackson died from unsafe propofol administration. I knew that I needed to add comment about his avoidable death to my book.

Brain monitoring would have enabled Conrad Murray to tell the difference between the benzodiazepine and propofol effect in Michael Jackson’s body. Jackson would still be alive today had this monitoring been used on him.

Brain monitoring is the 21st century standard for anesthesia care & propofol ketamine is the safest anesthetic.

Every time a patient has anesthesia for surgery or a medical procedure there are the dual risks of under-medication with waking up too soon or over-medication and having your brains scrambled. The anesthesiologist can get close to determining the correct dose using traditional protocol that involves an elaborate piece of guesswork no more reliable than the comical huckster who guesses your weight at the carnival.

Of the two risks, over-medication is the greatest because it can trigger Alzheimer’s-like dementia that does not go away. Patients always need to remember that they have to live with the long-term consequences of their short-term anesthesia care. Today patients must absolutely insist on waking up the same person they were before going under.

Unfortunately, almost all anesthesiologists gauge anesthesia response using the classical but, notoriously unreliable, signs of heart rate and blood pressure changes. Most do not rely upon a brain monitor, the best available technology to avoid either over-medication or under-medication.

The first practical brain monitor received FDA approval in 1996 and has been validated in more than 3,500 published scientific studies. The brain monitor can be found in 75 percent of American hospitals but yet is used only 25 percent of the time. Without direct brain response measurement, anesthesiologists are obliged to over-mediate for fear of under medicating (anesthesia awareness).

The dire consequences of anesthesia over-medication include one death every day and up to 40 percent of patients leaving the hospital in a brain fog (technically called Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction or POCD) that can last as long as a full year after surgery.

Even worse than death or POCD is the major tragedy of patients condemned to the living death of dementia after anesthesia (DAA). Until brain monitoring becomes the 21st century standard of care, we will never know the true incidence of DAA.

Going under anesthesia without a brain monitor is like letting someone play Russian roulette with your brain. Measuring is always better than guessing. The next time you or a loved one goes under for surgery, it is your undeniable right to demand a brain monitor.

In fact, in the April 11, 2011 issue of “Current Opinion in Anesthesiology,” they conclude: “Given the trivial cost of the BIS (brain monitor) and the proven benefits demonstrated in prospective randomized studies, we consider its use justified in every general anesthetic.”

About Dr. Barry Friedberg

Dr. Barry Friedberg, author of Getting Over Going Under, is the #1 authority in the nation on anesthesia for cosmetic surgery. A board certified anesthesiologist for more than three decades, Dr. Friedberg is a propofol expert and has been interviewed by FOX, CNN, True TV, and People Magazine about the misuse of propofol in the death of Michael Jackson. Dr. Friedberg has been published and cited in numerous medical journals and textbooks. He was awarded a U.S. Congressional award for applying his methods on wounded soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. www.drbarryfriedberg.com, Getting Over Going Under: 5 Things You Must Know Before Anesthesia (ISBN 978-0-9829169-0-2, 2010, Goldilocks Press, 116 pages, $18.95).

Photo Available

Media Contact: For a review copy of Getting Over Going Under, or to schedule an interview with Dr. Barry Friedberg, please contact Scott Lorenz, President of Westwind Communications Book Marketing, Cell: 248-705-2214 or scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or www.westwindcos.com/book.

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/2003716532.html

Monday, August 23, 2010, via satellite, FOX News’ Harris Falkner interviewed Dr. Barry Friedberg about Goldilocks Press’ recently published Getting Over Going Under and the Conrad Murray/Michael Jackson story. One of the most serious risks of anesthesia without a brain monitor is a permanent, Alzheimer’s like dementia.

Since the interview took place for the FOXNews.com web cast, no video clips were possible to obtain for this site.

However, no sooner had the interview concluded than my LA camera man excitedly said, “Dementia? That’s exactly what happened to my mother. She fell down and broke her hip. After her surgery, she was demented for the last 13 months of her life which were spent at a nursing home at the cost of more than $80,000.”

http://www.michaeljackson.com/us/node/917514

Albeit in a non-surgical setting, nevertheless Michael Jackson died from anesthetic overdose.

The message of the newly published ‘Getting Over Going Under’ book is to educate the general public of the need to demand a brain monitor when going under anesthesia precisely to avoid anesthetic overmedication – a routine, yet nefarious 20th century practice prior to the introduction of a simple device to directly measure patient’s brain response to anesthetic drugs.

If convicted, Murray only faces a maximum of 4 years in addition to the loss of his medical license. The Jackson family rightly wants justice for Michael.

The real justice for the grieving Jackson family will be seeing his death not being in vain but helping tens of millions of Americans from being over medicated.