waitwhat? said:
Having now read the report I'm going to walk this back. The report says what was in his system and that "deaths have been certified at 3 [for fentanyl]." It doesn't explain the scale that shows 11 being certain death relative to 3, and the handwritten portion also says that IF he were discovered at home with no other factors then it would be appropriate to classify it as OD..
Of the seven studies I've read on Fentanyl blood levels, only three had information on antemortem blood level. Most research appears to be on individuals who overdose and pass away.
One out of New Haven, CT was concerning a cluster of overdoses from a batch of fentanyl. Three individuals died with levels of 9.5, 11, and 13. The dozen or so individuals who survived all had levels below 4.
One report was out of the University of Florida and it had had media level of around 5 ng/L.
One report was out of Cuyahoga County and concerned individuals with DUI's who tested positive. They had two sets of data. One was a sample of 7 and consisted of individuals who only tested positive for fentanyl and one was a sample of 6 for individuals who tested positive for fentanyl and other drugs. One group had a median level of 4 ng/L and the other had a median of 8.5, but that one had a guy test 25.2 that seemed to skew the results.
There were studies that postmortem levels test at higher concentration levels than antemortem levels. Couldn't really get a feel for how much higher because the info ranged from ~10% to ~100% higher and the sample sizes seemed pretty small, but there is a consensus on the postmortem levels being higher.
The other studies were on postmortem levels. The Cuyahoga County, University of Florida, and New Haven studies as well as studies on overdose data out of Los Angeles and San Diego indicated median lethal doses ranging from 8.5-11 depending on the location of the draw.
That's all to say that Floyd's antemortem fentanyl level was over 2x the central tendency of the antemortem studies and New Haven survivors and around 15% above the central tendency of the median lethal doses of the postmortem studies.
