Who or What Killed George Floyd?
At the time of this writing, Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd. This is my opinion piece. Video shows Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest. He denied the charge against him. His defense team is proposing that drug overdose and an underlying heart condition caused Floyd’s death. However, medical expert Dr. Thomas stated, “There’s no evidence to suggest that he would have died that night if not for the actions of law enforcement.” Many medical experts agree that he died from a lack of oxygen due to the manner in which he was restrained.
Floyd was not a healthy man. He had narrowed coronary arteries, was a smoker, and had been using illicit substances for years. Upon an autopsy, Floyd was found to have cannabis, fentanyl, and methamphetamine in his system. Additionally, the autopsy report revealed that he was positive for the virus that causes Covid-19.
Fentanyl is a leading cause of drug overdose deaths. Methamphetamine is often secretly mixed with fentanyl. What does a fentanyl overdose look like? A person’s lips immediately turn blue, you will hear gurgling sounds with breathing, the body may go limp, stiffen, have seizure-like activity, foaming at the mouth, confusion, or strange behavior before the person becomes unresponsive. The person will have low blood pressure, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, changes in pupillary size, cold and clammy skin, slowed or stopped breathing, decreased heart rate, reduced or loss of consciousness, and coma.
It happens quickly. 75% of respondents in one study described fentanyl overdose symptoms that occurred within seconds to minutes. One person indicated that you would notice the overdose as soon as they are done injecting the fentanyl. They don’t have time to pull the needle out of their body and they’re on the ground. Floyd would not have had 20 minutes to coherently interact with the police or had time to call attention to his distress and inability to breathe. His death by overdose is extremely unlikely.
If you notice someone with these symptoms, act fast. That person needs immediate medical attention utilizing Naloxone, a drug that can reverse the symptoms of a fentanyl overdose. It restores normal breathing. If police officers had suspected a drug overdose, they should have administered Naloxone because they had a duty to care for Floyd as his health and breathing were deteriorating. They failed to do so.
If you or someone you know takes prescription pain killers, or abuses non-prescribed opioids, keep Naloxone in a readily available location. You can get Naloxone from your pharmacy.
A search of Floyd’s car found a box of Suboxone, which is a prescription medication used for opioid dependence treatment. It is helpful to reduce cravings for opioids. He may have been in treatment for opioid dependence, seeking recovery.
One news column from Minneapolis on August 26, 2020, reads, “New Court Docs Say George Floyd had “Fatal Level” of Fentanyl in His System”. This is nonsense. A fatal level of fentanyl is dependent on the person. To a person who has not built a tolerance to opioids, perhaps death is likely. But people who use opioids build a tolerance to them and can consume larger-than-average amounts without overdosing. Longtime opioid users often need to take increasing amounts of the drug to achieve the same level of euphoria.
So, did Floyd die of an overdose, heart failure, or of Covid-19? There is no evidence to support that he would have died that day of these conditions if he hadn’t been physically restrained in such a way that his breathing was impaired. We’ll never know the future, but he may well have died from these conditions on another day, but not on that day. If he had been alone, he probably wouldn’t have died.
As a side note, anyone can die of substance use, including alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes. Even casual drug and alcohol use can lower your life expectancy. An addiction calculator can estimate your life lost: How much your life is shortened by with every dose on average if you are a chronic user. See https://americanaddictioncenters.org/effects-of-addiction-calculator.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison made a statement. “To the Floyd family, to our beloved community, and everyone that is watching, I say: George Floyd mattered. He was loved. His life was important. His life had value.” I say that Floyd was a valuable human if he passed a counterfeit $20 bill, whether or not he used illicit substances, or if he was in recovery or not.