Fentanyl kills.
Or Did George Floyd Die of a Drug Overdose?Or Did George Floyd Die of a Drug Overdose?
I don't know whether the facts outlined in this article excuse kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than 8 minutes after he was handcuffed, but they may result in a non-guilty verdict at trial.
And if true, what does this say about the global protests that have resulted from this incident?
Truth is the first victim in politics. Factions and passions rule. Random facts are picked as weapons, no one thinks things through.We need to understand the facts surrounding the death of George Floyd.
Many key facts are being ignored:
- Floyd’s blood tests showed a concentration of Fentanyl of about three times the fatal dose.
- Fentanyl is a dangerous opioid 50 times more potent than heroin. It has rapidly become the most common cause of death among drug addicts.
- The knee hold used by the police is not a choke hold, it does not impede breathing. It is a body restraint and is not known to have ever caused fatal injury.
- Floyd already began to complain “I can’t breathe” a few minutes before the neck restraint was applied, while resisting the officers when they tried to get him into the squad car. Fentanyl affects the breathing, causing death by respiratory arrest.
- It was normal procedure to restrain Floyd because he was resisting arrest, probably in conjunction with excited delirium (EXD), an episode of violent agitation brought on by a drug overdose, typically brief and ending in death from cardiopulmonary arrest.
- The official autopsy did indeed give cardiopulmonary arrest as the cause of death, and stated that injuries he sustained during the arrest were not life-threatening.
- Videos of the arrest do not show police beating or striking Floyd, only calmly restraining him
- In one video Floyd is heard shouting and groaning loudly and incoherently while restrained on the ground, which appears to be a sign of the violent, shouting phase of EXD. His ability to resist four officers trying to get him into the squad car is typical of EXD cases. A short spurt of superhuman strength is a classic EXD symptom.
Minneapolis police officers have been charged with Floyd’s murder. Yet all the evidence points to the fact that Floyd had taken a drug overdose so strong that his imminent death could hardly have been prevented. In all likelihood, the police were neither an intentional nor accidental cause of his death. These crucial facts have been completely ignored in the uproar.
Regarding suffocation, the county medical examiner’s report found “no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.”[3] Pressure applied to the side of the neck, as in this case, and not to the throat, has little or no effect on breathing. One can easily verify this oneself.[4]
One difficulty is that there are public statements to the effect that the coroner ruled it a homicide, and the title of the autopsy report includes the term “neck compression.” But the words “homicide,” “restraint,” “stress” or “compression” do not appear in the 20-page body of the report. References to the neck are few — a couple minor abrasions, a contusion on the shoulder, and “The cervical spinal column is palpably stable and free of hemorrhage.” It is as if the title was chosen in regard to what was expected or proposed, but which was never found, and the title was never updated. There seems to be no support at all in the report body for the report title, which reads, “Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
The term “cause of death” does not appear. The words “death” and “fatal” only appear in this comment in the lab report: “Signs associated with fentanyl toxicity include severe respiratory depression, seizures, hypotension, coma and death. In fatalitiesfrom fentanyl, blood concentrations are variable and have been reported as low as 3 ng/mL.” Floyd’s fentanyl level was seven times higher.
If first impressions via the media fooled the coroner’s office, until they examined the body, we too can be fooled at first, but change our opinion according to the evidence.
Excited Delirium Syndrome
Read more about Excited Delirium Syndrome at the link.