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| T-shirt bought in Leimert Park, Los Angeles |
Today is 13 years since my sister and I sat at my mother's bedside, holding her hands, while she took her last breaths. April 9, 2008.
It's also 10 years since my friend Nancy Hardesty died, a few months after her diagnosis with pancreatic cancer.
I was already in a sober mood when I turned on MSNBC and found Dr. Martin Tobin testifying in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, May 25, 2020.
The doctor was explaining that the video of Floyd's death shows that at one point you can see him taking between 6 and 7 breaths in 19 seconds. The scene replayed as Dr. Tobin counted the breaths taken and showed jurors and television viewers how to observe the shoulders moving.
George Floyd's respiratory rate was about 22 breaths per minute--much higher than someone sitting in a chair, but normal for someone working hard to breathe, Dr. Tobin said.
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| My mother, Evelyn Eggebroten, in May 2007 |
Working hard to breathe... the scene of my mother's difficult breathing played as a counterpoint theme in the fugue of Floyd's death. The hospice nurse had told me to expect this labored breathing, the "death rattle."
Fentanyl slows down breathing, Dr. Tobin continued. The autopsy showed traces of fentanyl, but it was having no effect on George Floyd's respiratory rate. In other words, Fentanyl was not the cause of death.
"There's not fentanyl on board that's affecting his respiratory rate," he concluded.
Furthermore, heart disease could not have been the cause of death. A death from heart disease shows a build up of carbon dioxide in the body or in arterial blood, typically to around 89.
But George Floyd had a normal amount of CO2 in his body and blood--a value of 35 to 45. Thus, he did not die of heart disease.
Next Dr. Tobin explained that George Floyd's last effort to breathe occurred at 20:25:16 (8:25 pm and 16 seconds). "He was rocking his body, using his entire spine, cranking up his right side to get air into the right side of his chest." His left lung was completely flattened between Chauvin's knee and the street.
By this time my tears were flowing. April 8 had been fully turned into a day of witnessing death as well as remembering the deaths.
Graphic testimony continued. George Floyd can't raise his chest to get air because of the chain on his ankles, the handcuffs, and the knee on his neck, said the doctor.
Chauvin "has his whole weight on him. You can tell because his boot is not even touching the ground." (Dr. Tobin later revised the statement to at least 50% of Chauvin's weight being on Floyd's neck.)
"His airway was being narrowed more than 85%. His body is contorted by handcuffs behind his back. You need your arms and legs to push up, but he is not able to lift up his rib cage."
George Floyd loses consciousness after 1 minute of the knee on his neck.
Then he has an anoxic seizure. You can tell this has occurred, said Dr. Tobin, because his right leg jumps up. It's an involuntary reaction to asphyxia.
He's dead at four minutes of the knee on his neck, but he stayed pinned to the street for a total of 9 minutes and 50 seconds. Then a medic tried to insert an airway tube.
An EKG in the ambulance showed that Floyd's heart muscle continued trying to beat abnormally, but the rapid fluttering could not move any blood. This condition is called PEA, Pulseless Electrical Activity.
As Dr. Tobin replayed the video taken by Darnella Fraizer, he pointed out the "slight flicking" of Floyd's eye. But then it stops flicking.
"That's the moment the life goes out of his body. One second he's alive, one second he's not. He's alive though unconscious, then he isn't."
I'm lying on the couch, crying and hugging my chihuahua.
"But the knee remains on his neck for another 3 minutes and 23 seconds," he continued. Then the officers check his pulse and determine that there is no pulse.
After there's no pulse, Chauvin doesn't roll Floyd over or try to revive him. Instead his knee remains on Floyd's neck for another 2 minutes and 44 seconds. Nine minutes after the paramedics arrive, a breathing tube is finally inserted down his throat.
The cause of death is asphyxia: oxygen deprivation resulting in cardiac arrest.
Anyone would die from this kind of treatment, says the doctor. It had nothing to do with Fentanyl or heart disease.
Watching this horrific death flooded my mind, but the scene of my mother's last moments also hovered in the background.
She lay in her own bed, ten years after a diagnosis of either Alzheimer's or Lewy Body Dementia, being comforted by family. She was 89 years old.
He lay on a public street just a few minutes after being accused of passing a fake $20 bill. Four passersby tried to intervene. Instead of comfort or medical care, he was murdered. He was 46.
She lived as a Caucasian female and public health nurse.
He lived and died as an African-American male, perceived as a threat, working as a security guard. His race and gender caused his death in the racist, gender-obsessed United States of America.
Actually, he was a gentle man, friendly and filled with good humor.
