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Paid propofol expert, Paul White, prevaricates under oath… no such thing as ‘standard of practice’
Submitted by drfriedberg on Wed, 2011-11-02 07:58
When paid propofol expert, Paul White, testified in the Conrad Murray Michael Jackson manslaughter case, he tried to make a case for the ‘standard of practice’ being somehow different than the accepted ‘standard of care’ for sedation.
The only problem with his testimony is there is no such thing as the ‘standard of practice,’ and White knows it.
It is bad enough that White is facing 2 counts of contempt, but now, it appears he is trying to add perjury to his courtroom record.
Having given sedation for office-based surgery for nearly 2 decades, I can empathize with non-paid, propofol expert, Steven Shafer’s comment that ‘bedroom anesthesia’ has no tolerance for error because you have no backup.
In a surgeon’s office, it is not uncommon for only the surgeon, a non-RN scrub tech and myself to be giving elective cosmetic surgery care.
While, at least in accredited offices, there is oxygen, Ambu bag, suction, defibrillator & crash cart available, that ‘backup’ provides only a slight increment of patient safety.
More critical than the basic safety equipment is the ability to measure the organ medicated, the patient’s brain, in addition to the usual vital signs.
With direct brain measurement, one avoids over-medication, dramatically increasing patient safety by never taking the patient to deeper than intended sedation levels, thereby avoiding the need to rescue.
I can only speculate on what could have possibly motivated White to testify on Murray's behalf but I am delighted with my decision to turn that offer down before White accepted it.