Martin J. Tobin

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Martin John Tobin (born 23 April 1951) is an Irish-American critical care physician, pulmonologist, and academic who is a recognised expert in acute respiratory failure, mechanical ventilation, and neuromuscular control of breathing.^[1]

According to the American Thoracic Society, Tobin is "the supreme scholar of critical care medicine and editor or author of seven extraordinary textbooks on the subject." The Lancet described his textbook Principles And Practice of Mechanical Ventilation as the "Bible" of the field of mechanical ventilation.^[2] He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1994^[3] and was editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine from 1999–2004.^[4]

Education and career[]

Tobin was born in Freshford, County Kilkenny,^[5] and attended medical school at University College Dublin from 1969 to 1975. He earned a British Thoracic Association Research Fellowship at King's College Hospital, London with Philip Hugh-Jones. He was a pulmonary fellow in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Miami from 1980 to 1982, and then served as a critical care fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. He joined the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1990. The following year he became Professor of Medicine and Anesthesiology at Loyola University Chicago.^[3][6][7]

Tobin is a pulmonologist at Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital and Loyola University Medical Center near Chicago.^[6][7]

Rapid shallow breathing index[]

In 1991, Tobin and Karl L. Yang published a study that described two new indices, the rapid shallow breathing index (RSBI) – initially known as the Yang Tobin Index (Y/T) – and the compliance, respiratory rate, oxygenation, and maximal inspiratory pressure (CROP) index.^[8][9]

State v. Chauvin[]

In April 2021, Tobin was an expert witness for the prosecution at State v. Chauvin, the criminal trial against former police officer Derek Chauvin, who was accused of killing George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. Tobin testified that Floyd's immediate cause of death was low levels of oxygen resulting from three factors: being held in a semi-prone position on a paved street, the pressure of Officer Chauvin's knee and body on his neck and back, and his handcuffed left hand being pressed into his back. He also testified that fentanyl detected in his system at a level of 11 ng/ml, while elevated, had not factored in his death.^[1][10] He additionally explained, with the help of still photos of the incident, how Floyd seemed to use various bodily maneuvers to attempt to breathe. He also stated that fentanyl overdose would have slowed Floyd’s breathing to below the normal rate, demonstrating that Floyd’s respiratory rate in a slow motion video was about 22 at one point, and saying that the normal respiratory rate ranges between 12 and 22 breaths per minute.

Tobin was called as a rebuttal witness after the defense team's forensic pathologist David Fowler suggested that prolonged inhalation of carbon monoxide (CO) fumes from the police cruiser's exhaust tailpipe could have been a cause-of-death factor. Tobin cited Floyd's Emergency Room arterial blood O2 saturation level (98%) as inconsistent with carbon monoxide poisoning.^[11]

References[]