Handcuffs and Unexpected Deaths
Sharing our journal article about the potential medical emergency when a restrained citizen reports, "I can't breathe!"
I’m excited to share our publication in The New England Journal of Medicine about the “I can’t breathe” phenomenon — that rare but highly concerning event when a citizen, restrained by police or paramedics, anxiously reports that they can’t breathe, and then abruptly, unexpectedly dies.
More than 1,000 U.S. citizens have died in this manner in recent years, some of them quite infamously. Families have suffered tragic losses. Police officers and paramedics who clearly never intended for anyone to die have sometimes gone to jail, and have almost always suffered guilt and shame.
I and others have been researching why this keeps happening, and what can be done to prevent it. I’ll share more on this in future. Thanks for reading!
Do you cover the difficulties created by many arrestees claiming falsely that they can't breathe, and the resulting lower responsiveness of police who hear many cry wolf?
There was a infamous case or this in Portland, Oregon in the 80s when a prominent, elderly activist for the poor (whose name escapes me now) was handcuffed in the back of police car after a protest and died of asphyxiation. He'd been protesting a proposed sales tax which he correctly identified as regressive and burdensome to the working class. I don't think this led to any changes in police procedure. This was likely 1986 or 1987. Horrible incident.