George Floyd: Former medical examiner, Dr David Fowler, says Floyd died of his heart disease – not Derek Chauvin

George Floyd: Former medical examiner, Dr David Fowler, says Floyd died of his heart disease – not Derek Chauvin

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“In my opinion, Mr. Floyd had a sudden cardiac arrhythmia or arrhythmia due to his atherosclerosis and hypertensive heart disease … during his reluctance and subdual by the police,” said Dr. Floyd. David Fowler, a retired forensic pathologist, said at the end of 2019 as Maryland’s chief medical examiner.

Flowd has narrowed coronary arteries, known as atherosclerosis, and an enlarged heart due to his high blood pressure or high blood pressure, Fowler said. Floyd’s use of fentanyl and methamphetamine and a tumor known as paraganglioma was another important condition that contributed to his death, he said.

Dr. Fowler also makes a new argument that carbon monoxide from the group’s exhaust may have contributed to his death.

But during cross-examination, he admitted that he had no data or test results to support the theory and that there was no injury due to carbon monoxide. Asked how he knew the vehicle was even on, Fowler said he noticed water dripping from the tailpipe, which indicated to him that it was running.

Dr. David Fowler theorized that carbon monoxide from the group may have contributed to George Floyd's death.

Dr Fowler says he ruled out suffocation in Floyd’s death.

“Positional asphyxia, as the term is used in court today, is an interesting hypothesis and is not supported by any experimental data,” he testified.

In total, dr. Fowler said Floyd’s death had to be classified as ‘indefinite’, rather than a murder, because there were so many causes.

The evidence undermines the prosecutor’s argument, reinforced by five separate medical experts, that Floyd’s primary cause of death was low oxygen levels due to Chauvin’s control of a curved Floyd in the inclined position – known as ‘positional asphyxia’. To get convicted, prosecutors must prove that Chauvin’s actions were a “material causal factor” in Floyd’s death.
Dr. Fowler’s analysis included Wednesday’s full testimony. A day earlier, six witnesses had testified for the defense, including an expert on the use of force that Chauvin’s actions were justified. Several other testimonies have focused on Floyd’s drug use, most notably during a previous arrest in May 2019.
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The witnesses advanced the defense’s three main arguments in the case: that Floyd died of drug and health problems, that the use of Chauvin was ugly but appropriate, and that a hostile crowd of diversion distracted Chauvin’s attention.
The prosecutor settled his case Tuesday morning after calling 38 witnesses over 11 days. Prosecutors wanted to prove that Chauvin used excessive and unreasonable force when he knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for nine minutes and 29 seconds last May. Their case relied heavily on several videos of Chauvin’s actions, analysis by police experts and medical evidence on how Floyd died.

Chauvin, 45, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The defense’s case is expected to last only a few days, and the final arguments are expected for Monday, Judge Peter Cahill said.

While the trial focused on Chauvin and Floyd, the broader social interests were made clear this week when a police officer shot dead a black man in nearby Brooklyn downtown, sparking three nights of protests. The officer resigned and was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter. The Floyd family expressed their condolences and support to the family of 20-year-old Daunte Wright.

“We are here and we will fight for justice for his family, just as we are fighting for our brother,” Philonise Floyd said Tuesday.

Doctor says Floyd should have received medical attention

Dr. David Fowler testified at the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, on April 14.

The lawyer, Jerry Blackwell, during cross-examination dr. Fowler sharply questioned and repeatedly cut off the doctor’s efforts to provide longer answers.

Last week, dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist, testified for the prosecution that the action of Chauvin Floyd’s hypopharynx, a part of the throat that moves through the air, narrows. Dr Fowler said he looked at the evidence and went to seek more information but found nothing. “It’s not something I’ve ever heard of,” he said.

He also admitted that he is not a pulmonologist and did not try to calculate how much air there was between breaths in Floyd’s lungs – an important part of dr. Tobin’s analysis.

Dr Fowler could not identify the point at which Floyd had suffered his sudden cardiac arrest, and he said he did not notice that Floyd’s voice was getting thicker and thicker as time went on. He also said he agrees that Floyd should get medical attention at the scene immediately.

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The doctor’s analysis contradicts much of what the prosecution experts said last week.

Andrew Baker, who did the autopsy of Floyd, testified last week that police self-control was the primary cause of death, and he listed Floyd’s heart disease and use of fentanyl as other important conditions.
He described the paraganglioma as an ‘accidental’ tumor that had nothing to do with his death. None of the doctors mention that carbon monoxide plays any role.

Dr Jonathan Rich, a cardiologist who testified for the prosecution on Monday, said Floyd’s heart showed no evidence of injury at all.

“I can state with a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die of a primary heart event, and that he did not die from an overdose of drugs,” Rich said.

Fowler is charged with the ‘grimly similar’ death of Maryland teenager

Separately, dr. Fowler in a lawsuit filed by the family of a teenager from Maryland who died during a police meeting in 2018.

Anton Black died after an altercation with Greensboro, Maryland, police officers in which he was being held while lying in a light position for about six minutes.

At the order of the case it is alleged that dr. Fowler and other members of the medical examiner’s office obscured and obscured the police’s responsibility for the death of Anton Black. In the lawsuit, it is alleged that Fowler and others deliberately withheld the results of toxicology that contradicted police claims of drug use and falsely attributed the cause of death to other causes.

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Black’s medical examination report, signed by dr. Fowler, found no evidence that a restriction by law enforcement officers directly caused or significantly contributed to the deceased’s death ‘and suggested that’ the manner of death can best be certified as an accident ‘.

The police officers involved in the incident did not file any charges.

Attorney Kenneth Ravenell, who represents Black’s family in the case, told CNN he was “embittered” when he first heard that Dr. Fowler would testify at the Chauvin trial.

“We were initially surprised that Dr. Fowler would testify, especially since he is an accused in a similar case,” Ravenell said. “He’s a hired gun.”

The lawsuit was not mentioned by either party in the Chauvin trial.

Advocates for dr. Fowler did not comment, citing ongoing litigation. Earlier this month, a motion to dismiss the case was filed on the grounds that dr. Fowler and other defendants have ‘qualified immunity’, and specifically that he, since dr. the changes “sought by the plaintiffs.

CNN has released Greensboro police.

CNN’s Omar Jimenez, Carma Hassan, Cheri Mossburg, Brad Parks and Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.

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