The Defence Strikes Back: Ben Tonner KC Presses Prosecution Expert on Travis Ebanks’ Survival Rates

8:26

By Alric Lindsay

The manslaughter trial of Dr Paul Anthony Taiganides took a highly technical and contentious turn in the Grand Court today, September 14, 2026, as defence counsel Ben Tonner KC used ambulance logs and biochemistry reports to argue that gunshot victim Travis Alexander Derron Ebanks was in a state of irreversible shock before reaching the hospital. Richard Matthews KC countered with definitive radiological proof of a botched intubation.

The day’s proceedings marked the completion of testimony from the prosecution’s star expert, Professor Charles Deakin, followed by the reading of critical witness statements and police records detailing Dr Taiganides’ arrest, interview, and defence statement where he claimed the 29-year-old’s death was entirely “inevitable.”

The 4:26 am vital signs: Irreversible shock vs. oxygen starvation

Ben Tonner KC opened his cross-examination of Professor Deakin by using ambulance telemetry logs to trace Ebanks’ physiological deterioration before hospital arrival. At 4:26 am a non-invasive blood pressure monitor recorded 68/35 mmHg, producing a low mean arterial pressure (MAP) and indicating profound hypoperfusion.

** The Defence Position: At this crushed pressure level, cells were severely deprived of oxygen and could not generate enough energy to survive, rendering subsequent death inevitable.

** The Expert Rebuttal: Professor Deakin countered that a transient drop is survivable and “not invariably fatal.” He pointed to a highly specific window directly following the intubation attempt at the hospital. Within minutes of the breathing tube being advanced into Ebanks’ body, his pulse cratered to a dangerously low 47 beats per minute at 5:05 am. “Post-intubation, the blood pressure was falling because of a lack of oxygen, not a lack of blood,” Professor Deakin testified.

Dismantling manual airway checks: The stomach deception

Tonner KC heavily pressed Professor Deakin on the clinical environment, noting that a witness statement demonstrated that attending doctors actively checked for breathing sounds with a stethoscope and monitored the rhythmic rise and fall of Ebanks’ chest. Tonner KC then asked Professor Deakin his opinion on whether the implementation of these procedures represented a reasonable approach.

Professor Deakin explained that relying on a stethoscope or chest expansion could potentially deceive emergency practitioners in a chaotic room. He went further by saying that the trouble with listening to the lungs with a stethoscope is that it may pick up other sounds. In addition, an incorrectly placed tube pumping air into the food pipe will inflate the stomach, physically pushing upward against the diaphragm to fake visual chest wall movement.

Professor Deakin continued:

The teaching is that if there is any concern whether a tube is in the right place, the correct action is to remove the tube and replace it.
For this reason, capnography is the gold standard.

The radiologist’s verdict: Tube in the food pipe

Following the conclusion of Professor Deakin’s testimony—where no questions were raised by the prosecution on re-examination—Crown Prosecutor Richard Matthews KC introduced a critical report dated April 20, 2025, from Dr Richard Wellings, a consultant radiologist practising in Coventry, Warwickshire since 1993.

Dr Wellings’s report (read out in court by Matthews KC) provided an exhaustive diagnostic review of the 5:14 am portable chest X-ray captured in the trauma room. According to Dr Wellings’s report, he offered a definitive opinion on the positioning of the airway equipment, saying that the X-ray in the trauma room very clearly shows that the endotracheal (ET) tube lies outside the windpipe. Instead, the tube was within the food pipe.

The radiologist noted that the gaseous distension visible in the stomach was a secondary anatomical feature directly caused by ventilation forcing air down the food pipe.

Crucially, Dr Wellings compared the trauma room film to subsequent post-mortem X-ray records, concluding that the tube remained in the exact same relative position. Based on the statement read out in court, the report stated there was “no evidence that the tube became displaced between the X-ray and post-mortem,” establishing that it was erroneously placed in the food pipe from the outset.

The defence had previously attempted to show that the X-ray tip sat one centimetre above the carina (the ridge where the trachea splits), which would indicate tracheal placement, but Professor Deakin flatly rejected this, stating, “It is clear on the X-ray that it was not optimally placed.”

Blood delays and the fundamental basics of CPR

Tonner KC court further highlighted the hospital’s logistical constraints, pointing out that emergency blood supplies did not physically arrive in the trauma room until 5:50 am—long after the resuscitation effort had been officially terminated. Given a pre-hospital (ambulance) shock index of 2.19, Tonner suggested that a patient who had lost massive blood stood a lesser chance of survival without an immediate transfusion.

Professor Deakin’s view was that it was “difficult to be specific” that massive blood loss would lead to a higher likelihood of death because the circumstances vary by patient and effectiveness of the treatment given to the patient.

Professor Deakin added that Ebanks still had sufficient circulating blood volume to sustain life during the critical window, and that proper tube insertion would have been enough to stave off cardiac arrest.

Turning to CPR efforts, Tonner KC suggested that the three attending doctors in the trauma room were better placed than an outside expert like Professor Deakin to make the unanimous decision to cease CPR. However, Professor Deakin remained firm: “Even though the heart stopped, it does not follow that you stop resuscitation attempts.” He testified that standard practice requires checking three fundamental, reversible causes before ending a trauma resuscitation: low blood volume, low oxygen levels, and a collapsed lung.

“The correct treatment is to make sure the left lung has a drain put in it. This is a fundamental basic,” Professor Deakin stated. “For blood to do its job, it must have oxygen in it.”

Police arrest and the defendant’s statement

The prosecution then recalled Detective Sherwin, who provided the formal procedural history of the criminal investigation. Taken through series of events by Crown Counsel Martin Mulgrew, the court heard that on September 9, 2024, Dr Taiganides was officially arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by way of gross negligence. During a video-recorded interview at 2:18 PM, accompanied by his defence attorney, Dr Taiganides answered “no comment” to most structural questions put to him by detectives.

The afternoon session concluded with the reading of Dr Taiganides’ formal statement. The court heard that he had extensive surgical experience, having personally attended to over 300 gunshot victims throughout his career, and began his employment with the Health Services Authority (HSA) on December 1, 2023.

According to his statement, he received an emergency call at 4:00 am on January 21, 2024. Upon arrival, he found Ebanks conscious, but he had what he classified as a “non-survivable injury to C6-C7” and lung damage caused by the passage of a bullet.

Based on the statement read out in court for Dr Taiganides, because Ebanks had not yet been intubated by the time Dr Taiganides arrived, he made the executive decision to intubate the patient himself based on his experience. Dr Taiganides maintained that he verified the tube placement by analysing breath sounds with a stethoscope and monitoring the capnography, which he acknowledged was the “gold standard.” He noted that the left lung had completed a total “white out,” indicating it was entirely filled with blood.

Ebanks was officially pronounced dead at 5:14 am, about 35 minutes after Dr Taiganides arrived at the hospital. Defending his clinical interventions against the allegations of gross negligence, Dr Taiganides’ statement was concluded with a definitive assessment: “Death was inevitable.”

The trial stands adjourned and is scheduled to continue on September 15 at 10:15 am before Justice Richards.