Nichols in all probability died from inside accidents sustained from blunt pressure trauma, medical specialists informed CNN after watching the newly launched movies of his site visitors cease arrestFriday.
They mentioned the physique digital camera footage consists of moments the place the assault might have broken numerous organs – together with the liver, lungs or mind – and the harm to any of these might have been deadly.
Nichols died three days after the police encounter within the hospital.
Dr. Kendall Von Crowns, chief medical expert in Tarrant County, Texas, famous that Nichols’ slim determine meant his organs had been “millimeters underneath his pores and skin floor,” with out a lot padding or different safety from a bodily assault.
“When these kicks are available, they’re hitting on what seems like the correct aspect of his physique,” he mentioned. “So, you understand, your liver is sitting on that aspect. So he might simply be taking nearly direct blows to his liver, which might trigger his liver to lacerate or rupture, and that may trigger hemorrhage into his belly cavity. These might additionally trigger fractures of his ribs on his proper aspect that then may very well be displaced by subsequent kicks and trigger tearing or lacerations of his lungs, which once more, trigger hemorrhage into his chest cavity.”
Inner hemorrhage might restrict the quantity of blood and oxygen that’s reaching the mind, he mentioned, which might trigger an individual to turn out to be brain-dead earlier than they die.
Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist at George Washington College, mentioned it isn’t typical for individuals to die from exterior blood loss after a beating.
He significantly famous the officers’ use of a baton, which might trigger a extra “targeted” and highly effective hit than a fist.
“Head trauma could cause demise” from mind swelling and bleeding, Weedn mentioned. “When the mind swells, it causes stress, and it collapses the veins. If you collapse the veins, then you do not have blood circulation, and you’ll die.”
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta informed CNN’s Erin Burnett that “the mind is the one organ within the physique that doesn’t actually have any room to swell, as a result of it’s encased by the cranium.”
“In consequence, somebody could slowly, more and more lapse into unconsciousness, which appeared to be what was occurring with Mr. Nichols,” he mentioned.
Inner hemorrhaging can rapidly turn out to be lethal.
Paramedics aren’t significantly geared up to assist somebody with inside accidents like these, Von Crowns mentioned. The main target would have been getting him to the hospital for emergency surgical procedure or transfusion as quickly as doable.
“We’re speaking minutes,” he mentioned. “He actually must be handled immediately.”
The movies present that medical assist arrived a number of minutes later, after Nichols had been propped up beside a automotive together with his palms cuffed behind his again.
“Plenty of misplaced time there, which is so critically essential, with anyone who is basically critically unwell, mendacity on the bottom in handcuffs there, with no person attending to him,” Gupta mentioned.
