Beuther testified that McClain’s asthma was not an “active problem” for him and was not related to his death that night. He said he determined that by watching footage of McClain just a few minutes ahead of the arrest, including surveillance photos inside a Shell gas station when he was buying iced tea. McClain did not appear to be in any respiratory distress that evening.
Plus, his autopsy didn’t show any signs of obvious inflammation caused by asthma and when people die of an asthma attack there are signs of inflammation, Beuther said.
Beuther also said that he’s done a study on the effects of masks on asthmatics. McClain often wore an outdoor face mask, like commonly worn for skiing or exercising in the winter, even in the summer because he was cold, his family said.
Beuther said that masks can sometimes help asthmatics in dry climates like Colorado because they are breathing in warm, humid air.
The doctor said that when McClain was exerting energy in his struggle with police, he could hear his breathing grow more rapid.
“We can hear the rate and the depth and the intensity of his breathing go very, very high. So fairly quickly you hear this kind of almost panting,” Beuther said. “That would be the first observation - this is somebody that, if they said nothing, was having trouble breathing.
Officers put him in two carotid holds, which commonly cause people to eventually vomit if they lose consciousness and then regain it. McClain started vomiting and he threw up into his mask. Officers didn’t remove it until a few minutes later.
“It was a large amount,” he said, noting he inspected that mask. “In my medical opinion, certainty … this is a very high-risk situation. The more you vomit, the more risk of aspiration.”
Beuther said McClain was aspirating, or breathing vomit into his lungs, during that time. Prosecutors played the body camera footage at a loud volume to hear McClain’s respiratory struggle and breathing and sickness throughout.
Prosecutors also asked him whether McClain would have died had they not given him the ketamine.
“If they would have frozen time, he may have died or he may not have,” he said. “In the hospital … we have had both outcomes … in cases like this.”
