Anesthesiologist testimony: No medical reason to give ketamine to Elijah McClain before death in Colorado

Testimony in Colorado on Tuesday from an anesthesiologist revealed that there was no medical reason to give ketamine to Elijah McClain. Dr. Damon Robinson took the stand in the trial of two paramedics accused in the death of the Aurora 23-year-old in 2019.

Aurora Fire medic Jeremy Cooper and Lieutenant Peter Cichuniec injected the 23-year-old with ketamine during an encounter with Aurora police in 2019. McClain went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and died three days later. Both men are charged with reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, along with other assault charges.

That 500-milligram dose of ketamine was one-and-a-half times the amount necessary for a person of McClain's size, as previous testimony revealed in court. 

Robinson reviewed the video of McClain at a gas station before his encounter with Aurora police, as well as police-worn body camera videos and police, paramedic and coroner reports. He told the court that he believed McClain did not have excited delirium so there was no need to give him ketamine. 

In court, the prosecution asked Robinson about the amount of ketamine McClain was given, "Is that an appropriate dose?" 

Robinson replied, "It's a high dose, that is an overdose of the EMS protocol for Aurora… it's a general anesthetic dose of ketamine."

Robinson also testified he believes the paramedics had ample time to check McClain's vital signs which he said is critical before administering ketamine. 

"You want to have vital signs, especially if you're dealing with certain diagnoses like excited delirium," he said. "The criteria for that is going to be tachycardia or high pulse rate, so you need to know what that is... because if they're severely hypertensive and giving ketamine, which raises your blood pressure, it can be life-threatening."

One of the EMTs who responded to the call in 2019 told the court on Monday she never saw Cooper or Cichuniec ask McClain any questions, touch him, or check his vital signs before administering the ketamine. Robinson had similar testimony Tuesday morning when asked what he saw in his review of the body cam video.

"I think the first question that's asked is, 'Does he speak English?' But there's no questions as to how much he weighs, what's going on, or talking to him to see if he's awake," Robinson testified of the paramedics' actions. "You can see that law enforcement is holding his wrist, and that's another perfect opportunity to just be checking a radial pulse."

This is the third and final trial in the death of Elijah McClain and is expected to last several weeks.