Forensic pathologist says low oxygen due to officers’ restraint caused George Floyd’s death
Dr Lindsey Thomas, a former Hennepin County medical examiner testifying in the Derek Chauvin murder trial said George Floyd died from asphyxia, a state of low oxygen, due to officers’ restraint.
“This is a death where both heart and lungs stop working. The point being it is due to law enforcement subdual, restraint, and compression,” testified Dr. Lindsey Thomas on Friday.
Thomas trained Hennepin County’s current chief medical examiner, Dr. Andrew Baker, who ruled Floyd’s death as a homicide last year. In his autopsy report, Baker said Floyd’s heart and lungs stopped amid “law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression,” but the word “asphyxia” was not used.
Baker’s testimony will be key to prosecutors, who say Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes killed him. He was expected to take the witness stand Friday. The defence argues Floyd died due to drugs in his system and underlying medical issues.
Thomas said that in this case, she believes the primary mechanism of death is asphyxia or low oxygen and is not sudden cardiac death, agreeing with Baker’s autopsy.
Thomas said Floyd’s autopsy helped for ruling things out. She said that the autopsy had no evidence saying Floyd had sufficient lung disease to impair his breathing. She said that the slow nature of Floyd’s death indicates he did not die of a methamphetamine or fentanyl overdose. He didn’t face a heart attack or a stroke, she added.
Thomas said that Mr. Floyd was in a position where he was unable to get enough oxygen.
Her testimony verified previous testimony by Dr. Martin Tobin and Dr. Bill Smock, other expert witnesses called by the prosecution.
Thomas said that the long struggle with police produced chemical reactions in Floyd’s body that caused physiological stress which continued for nine minutes, with no recovery.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
