Not breathing when paramedics arrived

We've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.

Jackson had 13 number one hits during his solo career.

wow. What a day.

I loved loved loved the Jackson 5. They had a cartoon on TV on Saturday morning when I was little and I watched it every week.

He was something else - 12 years old here? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYgf_Cl59o

I'm going to go to lie in the tub, very carefully get out and gingerly put on my pj's, take my meds, and go to bed early. 

Where are all my childhood & teenage icons going? 

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic">Thriller and the early 80s.... there won't be anything like it again, I tell you. In the opinion of anyone my age, that is. :)

A prayer to his three children and those he left behind. A enormously talented, enormously complicated man, and I hope he's found peace.

moon in Leo, what triggered the transit moon in his chart? his Natal Mars? is that squaring transit moon? Last time we had a Moon eclipse in Leo Heath ledger and Berney Mack died.

LA Times says he is in a coma? I wonder how jehovah's witnesses feel about life support?

Radar Online:

Michael Jackson has died, RadarOnline.com has confirmed.  The singer passed away Thursday afternoon at UCLA Medical Center.  “The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a medical emergency at 12:21 PM to the 100 block of Carolwood Drive,” Capt. Steve Rudha told RadarOnline.com.  “We dispatched two paramedic and four firefighters who responded to the scene and treated the patient to the best of our abilities and transported the patient to UCLA.”

BREAKING NEWS: L.A. Times reports that Michael Jackson has died

Wait, WHAT?!

Wow you got your news faster than me. They JUST announced it on Fox....

God, I'm depressed today.

CNN is reporting what the LA Times has said, but are waiting for their own confirmation... a lot of web sites are down.

@Jilly - Jehovah's Witnesses don't have issues with life support. It's blood transfusions specifically, based on some Biblical admonitions on not "eating blood." (I can't give you the references because it's been 25 years and I didn't really care then.)

In other words, they're not all Christian Sciencey (i.e. pray it out/illness=error) and don't have issues with most medical procedures. Just blood tranfusions specifically. Their rules have also changed a few times over what they can and cannot do (regarding banking their own blood, blood derivative extenders, etc.)

/end way more information than you probably wanted about the Jehovah's Witnesses. (I was raised JW.)

I was trying to explain to my 15 year old daughter what a star he was when I was young.  There is no one like him now.  No one who is really a star of that magnitude. 

bbc live

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7753036.stm

Thanks Goddess - that was interesting. (Really.)

this is terrible. 

p.s. thanks, goddess. 

"Los Angeles County Coroner Fred Corell last night confirmed that Jackson had died of heart failure at 2.26pm local time."

I'm kind of spooked actually. He was a Virgo with sun conjunct Pluto like me.

Togi - he was crazy - it plays hell on the body - stress! Plus he is a black man, predisposed to heart attack and now the drug use comes out...

I'm choosing to remember the good times... and the joy he gave us back then.  R.I.P. Michael... thanks for the memories.

I don't  mean to be jaded, I just don't want Togi thinking she is going to die!!

Why else do you think he died?  What's up with the celeb death hoaxes today Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford?!

I just saw an interview on the local station here with a local friend of MJ.  He said that MJ only weighed 120 lbs and had been working very hard recently to gain weight (weight training was mentionned) and increase his stamina for his upcoming tour.  And then there's this on Yahoo:

Brian Oxman, a spokesman for the Jackson family, told CNN on Thursday that the family had been concerned about his health and had tried in vain to take care of him for months.

"Michael appeared at rehearsals a couple of times, he was very seriously trying to be able to do those rehearsals," Oxman said of Jackson's preparations for a series of 50 concerts that were scheduled to begin in London in July.

"His use of medications had gotten in the way, his injuries which he had sustained performing, where he had broken a vertebrae and he had broken his leg from a fall on the stage, were getting in the way,"

I hope the kids will be properly taken care of without being further scarred by a long court battle.

That is so sad, Stacey.  Jeeze.

I always felt sorry for him because he seemed so tortured, and because one of the main ways he expressed himself - and well - was through dancing, but his body just had so many problems.  I can't imagine what it must have been like for him to see his body morph into what it became, and wonder if he could recognize himself, must have been hard.

Thanks Elsa. I know I'm not going to die just because of one similarity, but on another level it IS unsettling. We shared Scorpio risings too. I know what power these aspects bring when they bear down and it's like someone poking you in the side saying "take heed, I did it to him and I can do it to you".

Drug combo caused the heart attack I bet.

Deepak Chopra's tribute to Michael Jackson

http://deepakchopra.com/default/a-tribute-to-my-friend-michael-jackson/

No wonder why this guy was so complicated...

he has 3 dual signs! That's 6 sides to him! And he has all 4 mutable signs!

Aside from astrology: Great man, very misunderstood. I loved his music.

Reports are it costs $25 if you want to go to his memorial...  what do make of that?

Radar online

I think paying to go to view a dead person is a crock of shit.

But I'm not paid for my opinion!

I'm a big Michael Jackson fan so I do care about him.

And this is what I have to say...

I HATE HIS FATHER!

His father was abusive and called him 'big nose' like a stupid 13-year-old kid. He is the reason why Michael turned out the way he was. I HATE JOE JACKSON!

Turns out that was a rumor. Seemed believable to me...

OMG Elsa, I miss him so much. Glad his music will always be alive. I agree w/ Toni, I don't care for his father, M.J. said he used to get beat w/ a belt or iron or whatever was handy. He was scared to death of him. I watched interview from 2003 on Dateline & you could tell Michael is so genuine & incredibly clever. He danced around the interviewer's (who wasn't too bright if you ask me) questions beautifully. He was asked why his skin was so light & he responded "Well the tanning industry is a multi-billion $$ industry is it not? Many people every day are changing how they look, to look different. " (not quoted). Genius he was & poor tortured soul. Anybody who judges him too harshly should look @ both sides of his life. R.I.P. Michael Jackson!