They most likely gave you something called Versed and Valium. Versed causes amnesia. The person responds to commands, but has no recollection of the events when it wears off or is reversed. We used it all the time in the ER -- setting bones, having to shock people's hearts when they came in awake and with crazy heart rythms.

The drug they are talking about in the Jackson case is a major league anesthetic agent. We would use it in the ED if we had to put someone out fast and for a long time. Generally people in ICUs have it to keep them unconscious. Often when they are on a ventilator to keep them asleep and from extubing themselves. It is administered by the drip and it doesn't take much. A person has to be constantly monitored. It really isn't used much if a person isn't on a ventilator because the risk of respiratory failure is great.

If what the news is reporting is true, the MD committed murder IMHO. And, that nurse on the TV is breaking all sorts of ethical and legal rules related to patient confidentiality. So, I am somewhat doubting her intelligence and thus her story.