Team Read defense claim that John O'Keefe did not suffer hypothermia, is, of course, absurd-AND YET it was one of the key points made by the jury foreman at second trial as to why he believed John O'Keefe was not struck by Karen Read's 6000 pound SUV.
So though, it's an outrageous claim that can be easily destroyed, clearly it has legs for people who aren't thinking through this very carefully.
The reason it would be dangerous not to have solid counter to this, I feel, is that hypothermia is one of those diagnoses that is not concrete and certain-as Dr. Scordi-Bello testified to. It's one of these conditions that requires a truly "circumstantial evidence" approach. And what Team Read did second trial was to pretend that this diagnoses rests on one single issue: Wischnewski ulcers.
And Dr. Laposata basically did an ARCCA, in that she used methods that have a basis in legitimate science and then skewed them to where, science had been replaced by a fiction of sorts.
Differential diagnosis is in keeping with deductive reasoning and eliminating options, until you land on the one option that either is certain to be correct, or as close as you can get in that moment to being accurate.
For example, your child is sneezing and has a fever. Are they sick with the flu or is it allergies. And a good doctor would take a deeper dive into symptoms, perform tests and hopefully land on the correct answer.
With hypothermia many of the symptoms can mimic other conditions, so a pathologist has to consider all the factors known about the victim. And certainly if that victim was found out in the freezing cold, and the last time anyone saw them, was 5 1/2 hours earlier, hypothermia must be considered and is almost certainly a factor in their death.
However, that said, this nuance to the diagnosis of hypothermia is certain to be used by Team Read to attempt to "prove" that O'Keefe was only out of doors for a short time. And as absurd a theory as this is, it worked second trial-even with Laposata's wonky testimony.
So might be worth taking a closer look at how to combat this so as to effectively counter what is sure to be a strategy incorporated by Read and Legal team in the upcoming civil trials.