Sammanfattad uppdatering om Floyds dödsorsak utifrån rättegång.
Floyds död är "homicide" dvs orsakad av annan person och via fasthållning samt kompression av polis.
Dr. Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner:
"cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."
Vid en obduktion noteras alla fynd, underliggande tillstånd.
När syrebrist inträffar frigörs en kaskad av stresshormoner som gör att hjärtat slår snabbare. Floyd hade förstorat hjärta orsakat av högt blodtryck och hade Fentanyl i blodet. Rättsläkaren beskrev att detta ökar riskerna och påverkar men är inte dödsorsaken:
" Other things that you think played a role in the death but were not direct causes" appear in the "other significant conditions" part of the death certificate, Baker explained.
"Mr. Floyd's use of fentanyl did not cause the subdual or neck restraint, his heart disease did not cause the subdual or the neck restraint," Baker said. They were items that may have contributed to his death but were not the direct cause, he said.
"In my opinion, the law enforcement subdual, restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take, by virtue of those heart conditions," Baker concluded."
Expertvittne Dr. Lindsey Thoma, forensic pathologist:
"In this case, I believe the primary mechanism of death is asphyxia or low oxygen," she told the jury."
Hon beskriver Floyds hjärta som lätt förstorat och nämner att det även skulle tolkas som normalt:
Thomas said she would consider Floyd's heart to be "slightly enlarged," but she added that by some measures, his heart would not be considered to be enlarged.
High blood pressure is the primary cause of an enlarged heart, Thomas said."
https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-o...=1659577626775
Expertvittne i rätten,
Professor Martin Tobin, pulmonary specialist in critical care:
"Mr. Floyd died from a low level of oxygen, and this caused damage to his brain that we see. And it also caused a PEA [pulseless electrical activity] arrhythmia that caused his heart to stop."
"Four factors led to Floyd's low oxygen level, Tobin said:
- his prone position on the street;
- the handcuffs that pulled his arms back;
- a knee on his neck;
- a knee on his back and down his side.
"All of these four forces are ultimately going to result in the low tidal volume, which gives you the shallow breaths" that can't effectively bring oxygen into the lungs, Tobin said."
" Tobin told the jury that the officers made it harder for Floyd to breathe when they pushed the handcuffs into Floyd's back and raised his wrists higher as he lay on the street.
Tobin told the jury that the officers made it harder for Floyd to breathe when they pushed the handcuffs into Floyd's back and raised his wrists higher as he lay on the street.
"It's like [Floyd's] left side is in a vise. It's totally being pushed in, squeezed in from each side," he said, clasping his hands tightly together to illustrate his point.
The effect directly interfered with Floyd's ability to breathe and rendered his left lung almost entirely unable to operate, Tobin said."
" Tobin noted that the toe of the officer's boot was entirely off the ground.
"This means that all of his body weight is being directed down at Mr. Floyd's neck," he said."
Efter fem minuter ses att benen rör sig okontrollerat, vilket är ett tecken på att den låga nivån av syre orsakat hjärnskador:
" Tobin said, Floyd's leg can be seen moving, seemingly involuntarily.
"That is when he has suffered brain injury," the doctor said. "We can tell from the movement of his leg that the level of oxygen in his brain has caused what we call a myoclonic seizure-type activity."
"Tobin said he's aware that Floyd had preexisting medical conditions. But he concluded, "A healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died."
Opiaten Fentanyl ger lägre andningsfrekvens med risk för andningsdepression. Floyds andning hade normal frekvens på 22 snarare än ett förväntat AF runt 10:
Tobin says that using his clinical skills, he was able to calculate Floyd's respiratory rate at 22, noting that in a roughly 19-second span of a police video, Floyd is seen breathing between seven and eight times as he lies on the street.
"It's extremely significant," the doctor said, "because one of the things in this case is the question of fentanyl." If that opiate was affecting Floyd, he said, it would have dropped his respiratory rate to around 10 breaths.
Asked by the prosecutor if he saw a depressed breathing rate in Floyd, Tobin replied, "No. It's normal."
"You are familiar with the way people die from fentanyl?"
"Yes, very," Tobin said.
"Do they or do they not go into a coma before they die from a fentanyl overdose?"
"Yes, they will."
"Was Mr. Floyd ever in a coma?" Blackwell asked.
"No."
https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-o...lack-of-oxygen
