Mission Statement - De-Spinning the Pro-Taser Propaganda

Yeah right, 'Excited Delirium' my ass...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The primary purpose of this blog is to provide an outlet for my observations and analysis about tasers, taser "associated" deaths, and the behaviour exhibited by the management, employees and minions of Taser International. In general, everything is linked back to external sources, often via previous posts on the same topic, so that readers can fact-check to their heart's content. This blog was started in late-2007 when Canadians were enraged by the taser death of Robert Dziekanski and four others in a short three month period. The cocky attitude exhibited by the Taser International spokespuppet, and his preposterous proposal that Mr. Dziekanski coincidentally died of "excited delirium" at the time of his taser-death, led me to choose the blog name I did and provides my motivation. I have zero financial ties to this issue.



Tuesday, August 3, 2010

A tale of two cases of "excited delirium"

Keep your eye on the taser, and the time axis.

Excited delirium: Consideration of selected medical and psychiatric issues, by Edith Samuel, Robert B Williams, and Richard B Ferrell. [LINK]

A case of untreated excited delirium and sudden death
...The police used pepper spray and Taser in attempting to restrain him. It took four officers to subdue him and almost immediately after being restrained he stopped breathing. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated and a call was made for emergency medical assistance. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. ...[coroner found] eight Taser wounds.

A case of treated excited delirium
...By the 18th day of hospitalization it was determined that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) should be initiated and five treatments were administered during thee days.

Case 1: Tasered*_and_died (*& pepper sprayed and restrained)
Case 2: Leisurely treatment over several weeks, electroshock therapy applied by experts in a non-lethal manner

It's really asking a great deal to propose that "excited delirium" ("untreated") is acutely lethal within a minute or so of being repeatedly tasered.

And naive and gullible to accept that the taser could not possibly be a causal factor just because the manufacturer says so. Especially when you scratch the surface of their claims and find endless discrepancies and evidence that they've been playing the system.

No comments: