‘He was limp’: Paramedic describes efforts to save George Floyd after he ‘flatlined’

A paramedic who arrived on the scene to treat George Floyd amid his fatal arrest testified in a Minneapolis court on Thursday that he found the man unresponsive. After paramedics checked his pupils and pulse, a heart monitor inside their ambulance showed Mr Floyd had “flatlined”.

“He was limp would be the best description,” Hennepin County paramedic Seth Bravinder said. “He was unresponsive and wasn’t even holding his head up or anything like that.”

How officers carried out their duty to render medical care to Mr Floyd while he was in their custody, as well as the ultimate cause of his death, are among the most important questions in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. He’s facing two murder charges after kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes last May as part of an arrest for a counterfeit $20 bill.

Prosecutors played police body camera footage of the incident during Thursday’s proceedings, the latest of the numerous video clips shown to jurors.

None of the four officers on the scene attempted to give Mr Floyd CPR once he lost consciousness, video shows, nor did Mr Chauvin remove his knees from his neck.

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A crowd of bystanders, including Genevieve Hansen, an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter, pleaded with officers to check Mr Floyd’s pulse and offer him first aid. She told the court on Tuesday she was “desperate” to help but “the officers did not let me into the scene”.

“There was a man being killed, and had I had access to a call similar to that I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities and this human was denied that right,” Ms Hansen told the jury.

Earlier this week, prosecutors said Mr Chauvin reached for his Mace when Ms Hansen came over to try and offer first aid to Mr Floyd.

“She wanted to check on his pulse, check on Mr. Floyd’s well-being,” prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said on Monday in his opening arguments. “She did her best to intervene. When she approached Mr. Chauvin ... Mr. Chauvin reached for his Mace and pointed it in her direction. She couldn’t help.”

Mr Bravinder’s partner can be seen checking Mr Floyd’s pulse once paramedics arrive. Police officers remain on top of the unconscious Mr Floyd throughout, and only move off of him once paramedics wheel over a stretcher.

In addition to providing insights about how and when Mr Floyd got medical care, testimony earlier in the day on Thursday detailed his struggles with opioid addiction. Mr Chauvin’s attorneys have argued drugs in Mr Floyd’s system, rather than the knee on his neck, ultimately caused his death.

“Floyd and I both suffered with an opioid addiction,” Courteney Ross, Mr Floyd’s former girlfriend, said. “We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back. We both had prescriptions. After prescriptions that were filled, we got addicted and tried really hard to break that addiction many times.”