Most of Thursday morning's testimony in the George Huguely murder trial dealt with the actions of the first responders who went to victim Yeardley Love's apartment the night she was killed.
Attorneys asked about the CPR given in an effort to revive Love and the location of various objects around the room.
Officer K.W. Blackwell was the first to give Love CPR. A University of Virginia student who was there when Love's body was found had testified Wednesday that he attempted to give her CPR but panicked, and that first responders had arrived by the time he was starting to try again.
Blackwell was on scene three minutes after the call was logged. The call had come in as a possible alcohol overdose.
He described seeing Love with her right eye purple and swollen shut, dried blood on her nose and mouth and scrapes under her chin.
"When I saw that it was no where near the report that was given, [I] realized something totally different had happened," Blackwell testified.
Blackwell started CPR, but was soon relieved by members of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad, he said.
Michael Hanshew of CARS was asked by the prosecution to explain photographs of EMTS laboring to save Love to the jury.
Police had started documenting the scene almost as soon as it became apparent there might have been a crime, it emerged.
EMTs performed chest compressions and used a mask and bag to simulate breathing, Hanshew testified.
When that proved insufficient, they tried to intubate Love and, when that didn't work, used a different apparatus to ensure airflow, he said.
The rescue squad tried to save her for about 25 minutes, he testified. When she didn't show any sign of life, they asked for and received permission to stop trying.
There was also testimony from an expert on resuscitation. The defense paid careful attention on cross-examination to how much blood pressure could be created by CPR. The expert said it would likely produce at most the lower end of normal blood pressure in a healthy young person, and that only relatively close to the heart.
The defense has claimed the CPR may have been responsible for some of the damage found in Love's brain.
Copyright 2012 - The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
