Speedinews Spreading Daily News With Speed
Doctors and government officials can no longer use the term “excited delirium” as a valid medical diagnosis or cause of death for those who lose their lives while in police custody in California.
“Excited delirium is not a reliable, independent medical or psychiatric diagnosis,” Mr. Gipson said in a press release after the legislation passed the Assembly in April. “… From the beginning, this terminology has been disproportionately applied to communities of color and has only been used in specific contexts pertaining to encounters with law enforcement.”
Mr. Gipson said he authored the measure following the death of U.S. Navy veteran Angelo Quinto, 30, who died after being restrained by Antioch, California police in December 2020.
Beyond banning the term from official use, state and local government agencies, employees and government contractors will be prohibited from testifying in court, or documenting “excited delirium” as a recognized medical diagnosis or cause of death.
Coroners, medical examiners, physicians, and physician assistants will also not be allowed to use the term as an underlying cause of death on a death certificate or any report, and law enforcement will be prohibited from using the term to describe anyone in a police report.
The law now also prohibits the term from being used as evidence in any civil court action.
According to a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the bill in September, the state expects to spend $50,000 from its general fund for the Department of Public Health to develop a system to identify the prohibited term and notify medical examiners, coroners, physicians, or others who submit a death certificate that it cannot be completed until the cause of death has been changed.
The California Public Defenders Association supported the legislation.
“Excited Delirium is not a medical diagnosis and the use of certain pharmacological interventions solely for a law enforcement purpose without a medical diagnosis or reason is opposed by major medical and psychiatric associations,” the association said in a statement, according to a legislative analysis of the bill.
The bill unanimously passed the Assembly in May with a 75–0 vote, with five assembly members abstaining. It passed the Senate 31–1, with Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta) voting against it.
Mr. Seyarto’s office did not immediately return a request for comment about his opposition to the bill.
George Floyd Death Shines National Spotlight on Term
The use of the term “excited delirium” has undergone a complete reversal in policy over the past few years, prompted by the high-profile death of George Floyd about three years ago.
In 2009, the American College of Emergency Physicians studied the use of the term and determined the condition was a unique syndrome that can be identified by a group of characteristics.
However, it received national attention after the death of Floyd who died during an encounter with police May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis. During court trials for the police officers involved, defense attorneys argued Floyd’s “excited delirium” justified the use of force, but the judge in the case was skeptical of the explanation.
The association noted that ketamine, an FDA-approved medication for anesthesia, is frequently used to treat the condition, and emergency medical technicians often use the drug to treat people suspected of having the condition when detained by police.
The medical association also denounced the term as a sole justification for law enforcement’s use of excessive force and affirmed its stance that police brutality was a product of structural racism, and racially marginalized and minority communities were disproportionately subject to police force and racial profiling, according to the medical association.
