Lung expert says officers could have saved Floyd
George Floyd could have been saved if Minneapolis police officers had moved him into a position to breathe more easily, and his chances of survival “doubled or tripled” if they had performed CPR as soon as his heart stopped, a lung specialist testified Monday at the trial of three former officers charged with violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Floyd died because his upper airway was compressed by Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee, while his position on hard asphalt with his hands cuffed behind his back — as two other officers helped hold him down — did not allow his lungs to expand, Dr. David Systrom said. That restricted the flow of oxygen and raised carbon dioxide levels in his body, Systrom, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said at the federal trial for J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao.
“Oxygen delivered to the heart and brain is critical to survival,” Systrom said, later calling Floyd’s death “an eminently reversible respiration failure event.”
The trial is in its third week of testimony after it was suspended last week when one defendant tested positive for COVID-19. The judge has said the trial could take four weeks.
Kueng, Lane and Thao are accused of depriving Floyd, 46, of his rights when they failed to give him medical aid as Chauvin knelt on the Black man’s neck for 9 ½ minutes. Kueng and Thao are also accused of failing to intervene in the May 2020 killing that triggered protests worldwide and a reexamination of racism and policing.
Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back and Lane held his legs while Thao kept bystanders back.