Rock Hill doctor helped saved Michael Jackson's life after 1995 rehearsal collapse

By Andrew Dys, Columnist - adys@heradonline.com

When Dr. William Alleyne II heard about Michael Jackson's death last week while on vacation, this doctor who specializes in lung ailments in Rock Hill turned young again.

In his mind, he was just Bill Alleyne, the young guy who spent money out of his pocket to buy Michael Jackson albums. The guy who became a doctor and took his new bride to Michael Jackson concerts.

“It was an overwhelming sense of sadness,” Alleyne said.

Sure, Bill Alleyne is a Michael Jackson fan like millions. But Dr. William Alleyne had more reason to be sad than most fans. Alleyne said Tuesday, for the first time in 14 years, “I was the doctor who saved Michael Jackson's life.”

In December 1995, Alleyne was the critical care director at Beth Israel North Hospital, on the Upper East Side in New York City across the way from the mayor's Gracie Mansion. He was the guy in charge when one of the nurses told him, “We have Michael Jackson coming here.”

Alleyne didn't believe it then.

“I said, ‘Ha, ha, very funny,'” Alleyne recalled.

He had seen patients who were stars, or spouses of stars, but this was different. Thousands of people started clamoring outside the hospital. The place was turning into bedlam.

“Ten minutes later, they rolled Michael Jackson in on a stretcher,” Alleyne said Tuesday from his Rock Hill office where he's one of the partners at Carolina Pulmonary Physicians. But in 1995, Alleyne was the doctor to the King of Pop. Jackson had collapsed after a rehearsal for an upcoming HBO special at the nearby Beacon Theater.

Alleyne and his wife had seen Jackson before in concert, on television, and now, in 1995, Jackson was waiting, unconscious, for Bill Alleyne to save his life.

“Mr. Jackson was in critical condition,” Alleyne said. “He was dehydrated. He had low blood pressure. He had a rapid heart rate. He was near death.”

Alleyne went from doctor to a star to doctor of a man who could die. Alleyne, an acquaintance of Jackson's doctor at the time who had seen some of that doctor's patients, had been picked personally by that doctor to be the attending physician for Jackson's emergency care. Alleyne gave the order to have the defibrillator ready if needed to treat the abnormal heart rhythm of the most famous entertainer with the best rhythm on Earth.

After about an hour or so that December dusk, Alleyne said he had Jackson stabilized with intravenous fluids and other treatment, and transferred Jackson to intensive care. But in the meantime, the crowd outside had become massive, a mob scene.

“I looked outside the window, and the crowd was shoulder to shoulder, huge, far more than when the mayor's mansion across the street had hosted the pope, the president, even Nelson Mandela,” Alleyne recalled.

And inside the hospital, Alleyne said, “it was absolute pandemonium.”

Jackson's entourage had muscled into intensive care. Alleyne had a brief showdown with one bodyguard who did not want to let Alleyne in the room again after Alleyne had left briefly. Alleyne recalled he said to the bodyguard, “Your boss is dying in there, and I am going in there to save his life. You can be the one who has to say you wouldn't let me in.”

Bill Alleyne walked in and saved Michael Jackson.

But the crush of people inside wasn't over. The entourage of Jackson's then-wife, Lisa Marie Presley, came in. Presley came in, too. Then through the middle of the crowd, another entourage, and Janet Jackson, Michael's sister.

“Here is Janet, drop-dead, stop-the clock gorgeous, and she said, ‘Thank you for taking care of my brother,'” Alleyne recalled.

Alleyne found time to call home. His wife, Cheryl Courtlandt, a physician herself who now is a pediatrician at Levine's Children's Hospital in Charlotte, was home with two small kids.

“I'm gonna be a little late honey,” Alleyne told his wife. “Turn on the news.”