Taser Deaths and Agitated Delirium
Eager to blame the deaths of violent suspects on the police officers who subdue them, ACLU types often call for a moratorium on the use of Tasers.
If you have never seen this hilarious video of a disrespectful young woman who thinks she can ignore the orders of a police officer ("Get out of the car now, or I'm going to taze you!"), then you are in for a treat. Bzzzzzzzzt!How about a moratorium on "playing the race card," honey?
This extensive review of 167 deaths which were associated with the use of tasers by police officers revealed that the vast majority of suspects died as a result of agitated delirium related to cocaine and/or methamphetamine abuse. I didn't see a single instance in my quick review of those cases where the use of the taser was identified as the cause of death. And I don't recall any cases where drug abuse or psychotic agitation wasn't a feature.
It is unfortunate that police officers, medical personnel, and security officers are inappropriately blamed for the deaths of crazed drug abusers when in reality these deaths are a well-known endpoint to the condition known as agitated delirium.
Patients with agitated delirium in the setting of a simulant-induced psychosis commonly die while they are being subdued and restrained, whether they have been tazed or not. Yet every time I read about such an occurrence in the media, it is presented as an unusual event. Maybe it was the taser....maybe it was the chokehold.....
Maybe it was the drugs. Ya think?
Labels: medical
posted by scalpel at 10:42 AM
9 Comments:
She sounded like a braying donkey.
Obviously, you've seen more patients like this in the ER than I have. But, I remember one night when I was admitting one of my own patients, I saw a very agitated patient (probably drug induced) trying to be put in leather restraints. There must have been a dozen people in that room including cops and nursing staff. If I remember right, multiple lawsuits occurred later because of "excessive use of force" by the hospital. What a joke. I couldn't believe it.
Tasers can indeed kill, but they do so indirectly. Whenever a state of profound metabolic acidosis (PMA) exists following a Taser shock, death is highly likely to occur. This can occur after a long (or frequently repeated) Taser shock, because a Taser shock causes muscles to contract and relax very rapidly for as long as the shock is applied. In Air Force experiments on anesthetized swine, a total Taser shock of 90 seconds (administered in 5-second intervals) resulted in a substantial increase in the blood lactate concentration--which is the way one measures the degree of metabolic acidosis--(none of these animals died, though, probably because they were unconscious throughout).
PMA results in death from cardiac arrest (because of the ventricular fibrillation or other irregular heartbeat produced) or from respiratory arrest, most likely because of the weakening of muscle strength that results from a build-up of lactic acid in heavily exercised muscles (the diphragm may become too weak).
Chemicals in the system, such as cocaine, can also produce cardiac arrest, and there is probably an interaction with the effects of any metabolic acidosis that is produced by the Taser shock, producing what might be called a synergistic effect.
Among the now-more-than-200 "Taser-related in-custody deaths" of human beings in the USA and Canada, the most common autopsy findings are cardiac arrest and respiratory failure: NOT a surprise!
When a person who has been shocked with a Taser is brought into the ER, it would make sense to evaluate him for metabolic acidosis by measuring blood lactate concentration, in addition to treating any skin punctures and removing the Taser barbs. Anything done to speed his recovery from metabolic acidosis would likely be beneficial, though probably not necessary unless the person were judged to be in imminent danger of death.
Excited or agitated delirium is an entirely invented medical condition. It is trotted out by police departments, municipalities and corporations as a cover for murder by taser. And I think you know that.
Agitated delirium is a well-known and well-described medical condition.
And tasers aren't the cause of death in these patients, counselor. Want another study? Click Here.
More of the absurd! To make the statement "tasers don't kill" is akin to the philosophy that swords don't kill, Its the loss of blood or catastrophic injury to a vital organ! Tasers can and do kill, perhaps not on every deployment, but they do and can!
Much like the dreaded "commotio cordis" examples in athletes, the jolt if delivered at precisely the wrong moment can short circuit the t wave and cause V fib and ventricular tachycardia. But using your logic, tasers don't kill, they just short circuit the heart.
swr
Taser overall are safe. They are a far greater alternative to handguns which do in fact aim to kill. The Taser C2 Stun Gun was made for personal carry and does not carry with it the same stigma as a police model Taser.
I much rather be shoot with a Taser as opposed to a gun - which is going to cause damage if not kill me. I think the police are wise in the use of Taser devices.
Scalpel, you are tragically misinformed. First "agitated delirium" is most certainly NOT a "well-known and well described medical condition." I happen to have a stack of my medical school textbooks near me. Do you wish to hazard a guess how many times this "well-known condition" is referenced? How about zero.
More importantly, the link you posted does NOT show that "tasers aren't the cause of death in these patients." That is not even the topic of the study. Perhaps you can take a few classes in research methods, or at least learn how to read a research paper before you go making such unfounded remarks.
Everyone should educate themselves on what the TASER is and how it is deployed. Information about the TASER should be better explained. The TASER actually only exposes an individual to 0.0021 AMPS (less than 1/2 an amp and less than what it takes to light up a small Christmas tree bulb). The wattage is about 6.8 watts. The 50,000 volts that people freak out about is a little misleading. A person is not actually exposed to 50,000 volts. It has more to do with getting the current to jump 2 inches through thick clothing and the like. It takes 25,000 volts for the current to jump 1 inch thus 50,000 volts allows the current of a TASER to jump 2 inches. The civilian model TASER is 100,000 volts...merely to allow for various clothing and to allow the current to jump 4 inches. The actual voltage exposure to an individual is about 1200 volts. All of this information is avalable to anyone with 2 seconds of time to look it up. The plain simple truth is that there is not enough electrical output from a TASER to kill anyone!! You have know been educated....your welcome.
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