Michael Jackson faces further legal action, from the family of a woman who died after she was moved in hospital, apparently to make way for the singer when he took ill on the way to court last week.
Manuela Gomez Ruiz (74), who had had a heart attack that day, was in the main trauma room at the Marian medical centre in Santa Maria, California, when Jackson developed ”flu-like symptoms”.
She was moved to a smaller room when Jackson arrived, her family said. She suffered two more heart attacks and died.
Her daughter Maria Elena Ortiz told ABC News: ”He walked in. When I saw him, he was walking unassisted.”
She had protested to hospital staff that her mother should not be moved, but they had not answered her.
”I said: ‘My mother just had a heart attack and I think it’s more critical than a stomach flu.’ They didn’t say anything.”
Jackson’s time in hospital delayed the selection of a jury for his trial on charges of child molestation and conspiracy involving extortion, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Hospital records show that Jackson complained of severe abdominal pains and his temperature was below normal.
Although the initial emergency-room report said that he could go home at any time, he stayed in hospital overnight. A doctor assured Judge Rodney Melville that he was ill.
Gomez Ruiz’s family complain that once Jackson came in, the staff became distracted.
She was taken off a ventilator and her breathing was assisted with a hand pump. Some of the machinery that had been used to treat her would not fit into the smaller room and her relatives could see her only two at a time, they say.
Furthermore, the family alleges, they were unable to enter or leave the hospital because of the security restrictions imposed by Jackson’s entourage and the police.
The family, which plans to sue the hospital also, says that its policy ”needs to be changed”.
Jackson’s publicist, Raymone Bain, issued a statement expressing sympathy with the family, but attacking the ABC network, which recently ran leaks of grand-jury testimony relating to the case.
”Michael Jackson sends his condolences to the family of the deceased,” the statement said.
”However, it is outrageous that Michael Jackson’s name would be invoked into a situation of which he had no authority or control.
”It appears that ABC is deliberate in its attempt to circumvent Michael Jackson from receiving a fair trial,” it added.
In a statement to ABC News, hospital officials said patient privacy laws prohibit any comment on patient care
It added: ”We are confident, however, that our patients have and continue to receive high-quality, compassionate and timely care.”
With jury selection completed much sooner than expected, the trial will begin on Monday with opening statements by the prosecution and defence. After that, the two sides will work their way through lists of names that resembles the line-up for an all-star gala rather than a witness list for a court case.
Elizabeth Taylor, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Macaulay Culkin, Diana Ross and David Blaine are all there, although it is unlikely that they will all appear.
The 12 jurors and eight reserves, who will be on standby to replace anyone forced to drop out, are also an interesting mix.
None is an African-American, which prompted one rejected juror to argue that Jackson would not be tried by a jury of his peers.
Two jurors are Latino, one is Asian-American and the rest are white.
Two members have had relatives involved in sex crimes, and several have visited Neverland, Jackson’s ranch.
Although all said they were aware of the trial, none of them said they had followed it closely and most of them voiced distrust of the media.
The trial is expected to last for five months. — Guardian Unlimited Â