> He did grapple with another officer, and both fell to the ground, resulting in a catastrophic injury to his spinal cord." Gage claims that Tipping wound up with three broken ribs, a lacerated liver, head injuries, and a broken neck. "His heart eventually stopped working because of his injuries" and "he was paralyzed….He had subdural hematomas at three places on the left side and three places on the right side. There is no way that grappling would have caused those injuries the way the LAPD portrayed it."
Rib fractures occur during CPR if CPR is being done correctly. The rest sounds like it was caused by the "grappling", which I suspect is a euphemism for the other cops beating the life out of him.
> Rib fractures occur during CPR if CPR is being done correctly.
This is a common myth. They can occur when CPR is being done, correctly or incorrectly, but do not occur in all cases and are not a good indicator of proper CPR technique. Sternal fractures or sternocostal separation may occur instead, and a small but significant part of the time, no injuries at all occur.
"Chest compression is the most essential component of CPR and it is performed on the lower half of the sternum. During CPR, many complications may occur because of chest compressions, especially chest injuries including sternum and rib fractures. Rarely tracheal injury, rupture of the stomach, or liver or spleen injury may also occur as complications. In this study, we present two cases of liver injury caused by resuscitation. With this article, we want to emphasize the importance of making correct chest compressions. "[1]
"In the general population, a well-described complication of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), liver laceration and injury, is reported at a rate of between 0.5-2.9% after CPR." [2]
The ribs/liver is not the suspicious part to me. It's the multiple subdural hematomas on both sides of his head in addition to the spinal cord injury. Something about that doesn't sound right.
My bet is that one of the cops tackled him off the bike, maybe breaking his neck in the process, and then probably a few other cops joined in kicking him. Any of the injuries might have been caused by the beating itself, but some of the injuries might have been caused by CPR after the assailants realized they had killed him.
I'd also wager that CPR done by trained first responders falls in the much lower-end percentage of injuries like liver lacerations. The generalized stats would include CPR performed by completely untrained people, etc.
> I'd also wager that CPR done by trained first responders falls in the much lower-end percentage of injuries like liver lacerations.
Maybe, maybe not. Considering where human livers are located (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver#/media/File:Liver_01_ani...), any lower rib or sternum fracture probably has a risk of injuring the liver. Professional CPR training might make this less likely, but I'm far from convinced.
Anyway, in the scenario I imagine, the 'first responders' who first did CPR are the cops who just beat this guy up and realized he stopped breathing. Technically trained as first responders, but certainly not level headed paramedics. So maybe CPR only lacerates livers when done incompetently, but maybe the first responders were less than competent.
I used to be a paramedic. That's EXACTLY the kind of CPR I'd expect from cops. No offense to them, but their medical training and experience is very limited, they have a lot of other things they need to maintain competency in.
Firefighters were way better, go on way more medical calls and even still you have to watch them carefully.
Rib fractures occur during CPR if CPR is being done correctly. The rest sounds like it was caused by the "grappling", which I suspect is a euphemism for the other cops beating the life out of him.