A cardiologist has taken the stand in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial for the death of George Floyd, sharing his opinion that Floyd’s death was “absolutely preventable.”
Chauvin is facing murder charges for his actions, which included kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd was lying face down. Jonathan D. Rich, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, testified April 12 that there were multiple instances when the former Minneapolis police officer could have repositioned Floyd and saved his life.
Rich testified that the initial way Chauvin restrained Floyd was the first such instance—and another was when an officer on the scene observed that Floyd was about to pass out.
“That would have been an opportunity to quickly relieve him from that position of not getting enough oxygen and perhaps turn him into a recovery position and allow him to start to expand his lungs again and bring in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide,” Rich said. “So, in addition to not putting him in that position in the first place, when there were signs that he was worsening, repositioning him—I think—very likely would have also saved his life.”
Video footage of Rich’s testimony is available here.
Click here for additional coverage of Chauvin’s trial, and Floyd’s death, from the Associated Press.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.