Is Jackson's star treatment to blame for a woman's death?

Picture from www.michael-jackson.com

On Friday, the family of Manuela Gomez Ruiz told "Good Morning America" A show on ABC how on February 15th 2006, their mother who was in a Californian hospital after suffering a heart attack was moved from the primary trauma room to a smaller room in the hospital to make way for Michael Jackson who was being admitted with flu-like symptoms. Mrs Ruiz who was 74 had two more heart attacks the following day and died whilst Mr Jackson was discharged on the 16th.

Family members of Mrs Ruiz are appalled at the treatment her grandmother was given just because Michael Jackson was a celebrity and are planning to sue both Marian Medical Centre and Mr Jackson himself for being to blame for her suffering the second and third heart attacks which led to her death.

The hospital said due to legal restrictions couldn't comment on Mrs Ruiz's case in particular, but did say:
"We are confident, however, that our patients have and continue to receive high-quality, compassionate and timely care."

A statement from Michael Jackson's publicist Raymone Bain deny's the accusation, saying that the singer offers his condolences to Mrs Ruiz's family but also:
"It is outrageous that Michael Jackson's name would be invoked into a situation of which he had no authority or control... He was a patient himself."

Well, it seems to me trouble and lawsuits are following Michael Jackson wherever he goes, but this is kind of getting into murky territory. There's no doubt in my mind that celebrities like Jackson do get special treatment, even when they are being blacklisted - Michael actually went into hospital during the start of his child molestation trial, stalling procedures. (Some say on purpose.)

However, can Michael be blamed if the hospital made the decision themselves to move Mrs Ruiz, because we don't know certain facts like whether or not Jackson demanded star treatment during his overnight stay as a patient.

Then there's the question of whether or not Mrs Ruiz suffered the extra heart attacks in response of being moved, or if she was still going to die regardless. So as I said, it is really murky territory.

My sympathy goes out to Mrs Ruiz's family, and I'm not saying if they do file charges that they are doing it for the money, a lot of people can't take the fact that it was just their loved one's time to go, so start looking for scapegoats.

But even though I am not a fan of Jackson, I do think it rather interesting that it took Mrs Ruiz's family just over a year to speak out on the matter...

Full story found on courttv.com.