Nurse: Jackson Begged for Insomnia Drug

Michael Jackson was so distraught over persistent insomnia in recent months that he pleaded for a powerful sedative despite warnings it could be harmful, says a nutritionist who was working with the singer as he prepared his comeback bid. Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse, said she repeatedly rejected his demands for the drug, Diprivan, which is given intravenously. She said he kept insisting that another doctor, unnamed, had given it to him and told him it was "safe medicine."

On June 21, four days before Jackson's death, Lee said she got a frantic call from a member of the singer's staff. "I could hear Michael in the background (saying,) 'One side of my body is hot, it's hot, and one side of my body is cold. It's very cold,'" Lee said. She wanted Jackson to go the hospital, but that never happened. "I knew that somebody had given him something that hit the central nervous system. He was in trouble Sunday and he was crying out." (More Michael Jackson stories.)