A cardiologist has stated that George Floyd did not die from a pre-existing heart condition or drug overdose in his powerful testimony at the Derek Chauvin trial.

The trial, which hopes to determine whether former police officer Chauvin caused the death of Floyd, whose neck he knelt on for over nine minutes last year, has brought forward some damning testimonies against the defendant in recent weeks.

On Monday (April 12), cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Rich told the jury that Chauvin's excessive use of force on Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed, resulted in a lack of oxygen, which, in turn, led to a cardiac arrest.

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Dr. Rich stated as part of his testimony, per CNN: "After reviewing all of the facts in evidence of the case, I can state with a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die from a primary cardiac event and he did not die from a drug overdose."

According to the medic, Floyd had been "trying to get enough oxygen, and because he was unable to because of the position that he was subjected to, the heart didn’t have enough oxygen either, which means the entire body is deprived of oxygen."

Also while on the witness stand, Dr. Rich declared that Floyd's death was "absolutely preventable".

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He said: "There was one moment in the video where I heard one of the officers say, ‘I think he’s passing out.

"That would’ve been an opportunity to quickly relieve him from that position of not getting enough oxygen, perhaps turn him into a recovery position, and allow him to start to expand his lungs again and bring in oxygen."

The testimony comes after the doctor who pronounced Floyd dead at the Hennepin County Medical Center in May last year stated that he, too, believes Floyd had gone into cardiac arrest due to the lack of oxygen received.

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Dr. Bradford Langenfeld said that when considering all the factors, oxygen deficiency was the most probable cause of death.

Langenfeld said, per the New York Times: "Any amount of time that a patient spends in cardiac arrest without immediate CPR markedly decreases the chance of a good outcome. Approximately 10-15% decrease in survival for every minute that CPR is not administered."

He also stated the likelihood that Floyd had suffered a heart attack was not very high as there was no indicator that he had experienced any chest pain.

Featured image credit: Kristin Cato / Alamy Stock Photo

George Floyd 'did not die from a primary cardiac event or drug overdose', says cardiologist