A cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital testified and said that George Floyd would still be alive if it weren’t for former cop Derek Chauvin’s restraint.
Dr. Jonathan Rich said that Floyd did not have heart disease and his fentanyl tolerance was so high that it played no part in his tragic death.
After reviewing all of the videos, interviews, and reports on the father’s death, Rich told the jury: “In this case Mr George Floyd died from a cardiopulmonary arrest. It was caused by low oxygen and those low oxygen levels were produced by the prone restraint and positional asphyxia that he was subjected to.”
The cardiologist refuted key arguments from the defense and said: “After reviewing all of the facts I can state with a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die from a primary cardiac event and he did not die from a drug overdose.”
Instead, Rich said that the father “was just unable using all of his muscles, his accessory muscles, he was unable (to breathe) because of the position he was subjected to’.
“The heart thus didn’t have enough oxygen either which means the entire body didn’t have enough oxygen.”
When asked by trial attorney Jerry Blackwell whether he believed Floyd would still be alive if it weren’t for Chauvin’s “subdual and restraint of nine minutes and 29 seconds on the ground,” Rich answered: “To a high degree of medical certainty, he would have lived.”
The cardiologist also told the court that “Mr. George Floyd’s death was absolutely preventable.”
Even though Floyd had high blood pressure which could eventually become a problem if not treated, Rich told the court: “Every indicator is that Mr Floyd had an exceptionally strong heart because he could generate pressures at some points upwards of 200.”
“In the course of the restraint I was looking to see if his deterioration occurred rapidly,” Rich continued. “A primary cardiac event, the most common arrhythmia is ventricular fibrillation, when that happens the individual will look relatively okay and then they will immediately become unconscious.
“On the other hand if the cause is from something else – for example low oxygen levels – you will typically see that happening more gradually and slowly.
“I could see his speech starting to become less forceful, his muscle movements becoming weaker until eventually his speech and muscle movements were absent. And then of course he was in a PEA (Pulseless Electrical Activity) cardiopulmonary arrest.”
Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson asked: “If Mr Floyd had just got into the seat of the squad car do you think he would have survived?”
Rich did not give a straight yes or no but said: “Had he not been restrained in the way in which he was, I think he would have survived that day. I think he would have gone home had he not been subjected to the prone position that he was.”
Nelson then told the court: “So in other words if he had just gotten into the squad car.”
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Replaced!