Tag Archives: medical examiner

Everyday is Halloween

Posted on by bcallor

Halloween is my wife’s favorite holiday. She grew up decorating and hosting spook alleys and haunted houses. Maybe that’s part of what attracted me to her. I wouldn’t dub her a ghoul nor myself, but we certainly enjoy a controlled fright once in a while. Who doesn’t like a good scare? It gets the ‘ol ticker moving and the pulse pounding. It makes you feel alive. I personally enjoy watching scary movies as opposed to walking through darkened, spooky alleys. Thought provoking psychological thrillers are my preference. Perhaps that is why I enjoy working for the Medical Examiner.

Every day is Halloween when working at a morgue. I’ve witnessed things that belong in the plots of gruesome horror flicks. I’ve seen products of enough violent acts to write scores of my own box office thrillers. It causes me reflect on how much the world has changed even in the past decade.

For example, in a time not so long ago, metal detectors were primarily in public view at airport security. Now we have them in our public schools. What about the simple Halloween tradition of soliciting neighbors for sweet treasures while dressed up in ghoulish costume? Twenty years ago we would spend all night trick-or-treating. Is it safe in our day and age?

I remember one Halloween as a child. My mom made me a shiny, black cape with a quintessential, tall, Count Dracula collar. I slicked back my dark brown hair, smeared white costume paint all over my olive complexion, and inserted white plastic vampire teeth. Man, I looked awesome. I looked so cool in fact that my kid sister refused to don her Pippi Longstocking outfit because she too wanted to be a vampire. Mom conceded and the two of us terrorized our neighborhood all night long. I remember vividly our instructions for safety. We were told to never visit unfamiliar houses and to always inspect our candy before eating. Halloween 2010

That warning rings true today, but better technology at the helm. No longer do children need to carefully inspect each piece of candy by hand risking hazardous razor blades and needles. Police departments offer free candy screening under x-ray vision. To ensure further safety, neighborhoods host block parties where children walk from car to car within sight of protective parents and familiar neighbors. They call it trunk-or-treating.

I appreciate the safety and enjoy the ease at which we accomplish the task of begging for goodies, but it is indeed not the same experience I enjoyed as a kid. Suffice it to say, although we’ve become more informed and hopefully more educated as a society we’ve also become collectively more sceptical. The sinister world in which we live has certainly taken the fun out of almost everything. Even a holiday dedicated to the macabre can’t thoroughly be enjoyed in this malevolent world.

I’m reminded of my wife’s favorite holiday show, The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is an effective blend of morbid and merry. I often feel like the main character, Jack Skellington. I’m good at what I do, but I’m always searching for something new. Although, I’m comfortable in my dark, unfavorable world; the glittery world outside looks enticing and rewarding.  Even now with Christmas at the door I find myself torn by choosing to watch people hunt down ghosts or christmas stories.

I am grateful for the holiday season. Some people may only include Thanksgiving and Christmas in “the holiday season,” but I also include Halloween. I feel that there is a natural progression from Halloween onward that helps me truly appreciate life. We begin by appreciating life while respecting death in Halloween tradition, then move forward to expressing gratitude for all that we have by celebrating Thanksgiving, and finally end the calendar year with charity in our hearts as we recognize the spirit of Christmas.

I wish you great joy during this winter season whether you celebrate Chanukah (Hanukkah), Kwanzaa, or Christmas. Thanks for reading.

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Coping Strategy: Sharing

Posted on by bcallor

When I speak of sharing as a way to cope with tragedy I’m not referring to something as trivial as going halfsies on a foot long submarine sandwich or something more drastic and deviant such as joining a swinger’s club. I mean opening up yourself to another human being by sharing your sorrow. Seeking social support is an adaptive or constructive coping technique. The trick is knowing whether or not the other person is willing to share your burden.

The Christian Bible speaks of Jesus Christ who told his disciples to come unto Him with their burdens and He would give them rest. The Torah suggests that the word rest, as used in this scripture, refers to a related word that means to lead or guide. Consequently, a person who knows the way to peace or knows how to find happiness has a moral obligation to help others find the way. The Quran says that Allah does not put burden on any human more than he can bear. It also says that any man who is burdened cannot lift another from their burden without the help of Allah. I’m paraphrasing, of course. The 14th Dalai Lama said, “Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source both of inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species.” Buddha taught his son to practice compassion. He said that compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of others without expecting anything in return.

With those thoughts in mind, I would like to share an experience I had the other day. I met a kind, honest man who for whatever reason decided to open up to me. We met as he was delivering supplies to my office. His tragedy was tender and personal and I felt honored that he chose to share it with me. The story he shared was about the death of his infant child many years prior. I suppose he felt comfortable sharing his history with me being that I work for the Medical Examiner. Perhaps he thought that I would understand his loss and appreciate his pain. He would be correct in that assumption. Whatever reason he might have had for sharing his story, I DID truly appreciate him sharing it with me. It’s important to me to remain grounded. It’s all too easy to become callous and dissociate from reality when surrounded by tragedy all day long. Connecting with another human helps maintain realism.

Although I am still a stranger to that delivery man, I will always remember the part of him that he shared with me, and I hope our brief interaction lightened his load. It certainly made me reflect on a few aspects of my childhood. You see, I come from a long line of story tellers who share our family history as if speaking is as essential as breathing. Every aspect of our family’s life has been shared with friends, neighbors, and strangers alike. As a child it embarrassed me to hear our trials revealed so readily with anyone willing to listen and some not so willing. I’m just now beginning to realize that the sharing of those burdens with others, and the open discussion of our family’s trials were perhaps an attempt to cope with the burden of those trials.

I have discovered that I too have the gift of sharing. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. In any case, I have found that it is quite liberating to release my secrets into the world. Thank you to all of my liberators and please accept my apologies for saddling you with my problems. A caution to all who comfortably and freely share your burdens with others, please be aware with whom you share that you do not saddle the already heavy-laden. Neither of you will benefit from that interchange.

Please consider the following quote by L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In his October, 2009 General Conference address, That Your Burdens May Be Light, he said, “…bearing up under our own burdens can help us develop a reservoir of empathy for the problems other face. The Apostle Paul taught that we should ‘bear…one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.’ Accordingly, our baptismal covenants require that we should be ‘willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; yea, and [be] willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.'”

I would like to reiterate what the Dalai Lama has said concerning human nature. Compassion is not a luxury, it is fundamental to the survival of our species. May you be willing to share your sorrows with a friend and in turn receive their’s. Be a friend to one who has none. Listen. It is human nature to hold on to your anger and sadness, to wallow in self-pity. Do yourself a favor and put off the natural man. Remember that a more constructive technique to cope is to share.

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Silver Highlights

Posted on by bcallor

I was told by a friend the other day that my hair color was gorgeous. I was surprised by her response because the last time I looked in a mirror my hair was inundated with numerous gray strands. I’m not terribly fond of my premature graying, but my friend’s compliment made me feel better about it. My adorable Aunt Dot commented once on my lovely highlights. I chuckled and said, “If only these silver highlights were intentional.” These expressions of admiration prompted me to think about the topic of graying hair.

I see countless gray-haired individuals pass through the OME. Their stories are familiar. Some of them young like myself and, most of them older. The death invest summary might read, “Lives alone. Hasn’t seen a doc in several years. Has pain meds for unknown medical conditions. Last seen alive by granddaughter who delivered food the night before.” I often will read the obituary in the local paper to find out a little bit more about the deceased individual, but I’m still left with unanswered questions. I wonder what made that person tick. Who was the man before his hair became silver? What caused his silver highlights? Unfortunately, I don’t often get answers to those types of questions.

Is that what we’re reduced to after death? A couple of paragraphs in a death investigation narrative and a black and white photo above an obituary. Hopefully we have loving family who will cherish our life’s story and want to share it with others. Now that’s what I call, “Silver Highlights.” Wisdom that can be gleaned by sharing years of experience. Unfortunately, not everybody is survived by family and friends who can share life’s experiences. To you I would suggest that you share your thoughts while you are alive. You might start by keeping a journal or maintaining a blog. Now I’m not suggesting that every idea that comes out of a person is a gem, but the true loss would be for any person to be forgotten. Some people die alone and end up at the Medical Examiner‘s. They remain at the Medical Examiner’s Office for several months until the county attorney assumes responsibility as indigent and cremates their body.

Recently, my brother was assigned the task of writing his own eulogy for a class assignment. He turned to me for advice since I’m the family’s resident expert in death. As I considered his college writing assignment I pondered on what might be said of me upon my passing. Would I be remembered as a kind, wise, generous grandfather? Would I be survived by my loving, beautiful wife and adoring children? Will my children be married with children of their own? Will my family relay some of my infamous silver highlights? I’m not referring to senior moments here, that is something entirely different. Let me further define a silver highlight as a lesson taught from experience or wisdom shared by a mentor.

I’ll share an example of a silver highlight with you. Toward the end of his life, my wife’s paternal grandfather would tell me upon our visits, “I don’t know you, but I like you.” He suffered from dementia due to years of Parkinson’s, but he was sharp. On one particular visit he spoke a few words of Italian to me. Although he couldn’t immediately recall my name, his ailing mind connected with me in a brilliant way. He slyly grinned at me as he relayed kind words about his beautiful wife who sat patiently beside him. I understood him, you see, because I am Italian. I knew that he knew I was Italian. He was telling me in his own way that he remembered me.

I’ve always told my friends and family that I anticipate the day when I’m old and gray. It is my philosophy that when a person has survived long enough on this magnificent, rotating rock, ever hurling itself through the vastness of space, he or she has earned the right to do and say as they please without scorn or retribution. I was taught to respect and revere my elders. I believe we can learn valuable lessons from those who have tried and failed or tried and succeeded so many times before us. Although I am not as old, relatively speaking, nor nearly as wise as my elders I’ve decided to gracefully accept my premature gray hairs.

I’ve listed below some of my favorite silver highlights or words of wisdom that I’ve adopted over the years from friends and family. Most of the quotes are paraphrased to the best of my recollection. I cannot take credit for these sayings, however, they are what I’ve extracted from lessons learned. Unfortunately, I can’t give credit where credit is due because I cannot with certainty assign a quote to any one person. Although, special thanks goes out to my mentors: Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma, Todd, Ed, Erik, Shannon, Bob, Doug, Margaret, Don, Dan, and so many more.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you for reading. The immortal words of Grandpa, “I don’t know who you are, but I like you.”

  • “Always respect your elders.”
  • “You can’t say you don’t like it until you’ve tried it.”
  • “Life is what happens when you decide to make a plan.”
  • “Don’t get discouraged, make the best of every situation.”
  • “Don’t stress about work. Work is what you do to support those you love. You leave work to go home to the ones you love.”
  • “Keys to success: See one, do one, teach one.”
  • “If you set a goal, you are more likely to attain that goal.”
  • “Every person needs three things to be happy: A friend, a hero, and something to occupy the time.”
  • “If you think you should do something, then act.”
  • “If you think you should not do something, then don’t.”
  • “Our goal and our purpose is to do no harm.”
  • “Don’t get entangled and lost in the how to’s, visualize the proposed end product and arrive.”
  • “Work smart, not hard.”
  • “Stand when a lady enters the room.”
  • “Open the door for a lady.”
  • “Forgive quickly.”
  • “Forgive the person, not the crime.”
  • “The key to happiness is forgiveness.”
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Waking Up Dead Is Bad

Posted on by bcallor

You should see your doctor often. If you do not currently visit a general practitioner I urge you to find one and schedule an annual checkup. Consider the following: You change the oil in your automobile every 3000 miles. You acquire special insurance for your electronics and even virus protection for your computers. You should take as much precaution for your own health as you do for your toys.

I have seen all too often the case where an individual hasn’t seen a doctor in years, and recently has been complaining about chest pain and left arm discomfort for several days and finally wakes up dead. Obviously you can’t wake up dead, this is a term I use to illustrate insanity of not seeing a doctor for obvious health issues. I like the term because it exemplifies the unexpected nature of death. It makes me think of Mrs. White from the motion picture, Clue. She said that her husband was a stupidly optimistic man. His death must have come as a shock to him.

Waking up dead is certainly unexpected and can be prevented. Let’s take for example the woman who had been complaining about abdominal pain and incessant weight gain for several months, but had not seen a physician for her condition. During her autopsy we discover a 45 pound tumor growing wildly in her abdomen, cutting off blood supply to vital organs and eventually taking her life. It takes time to grow a 45 pound mass in your belly. Her condition could have been resolved by a health specialist if seen early enough. This story is not isolated.

A more common story is the middle-aged man complaining about chest pain for several days, but decides that it must be indigestion and takes antacids to alleviate the discomfort. We find plenty of pink Pepto in his stomach at autopsy, but Pepto did nothing for his atherosclerosis. The chest pain wasn’t heartburn but angina due to coronary artery atherosclerosis. Heart muscle dies due to lack of blood supply and creates an infarct of the heart muscle that disrupts normal rhythm or worse. The heart muscle can weaken and rupture thus pumping blood into the pericardial sac that surrounds the heart which squeezes out its natural pumping.

Please see your doctor. This point is so important that the current political climate is overwhelmingly focused on health care reform to provide medical care to everyone – whether they want it or not. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Don’t shrug off that consistent pinpoint pain in your side as constipation or that debilitating chest pain as indigestion. Please don’t self-medicate with alcohol and other numbing drugs in an attempt to mask the underlying issue. A trained specialist will prescribe the appropriate drug for your condition.

I apologize if this post seems like a helpless plea, but I see so many untimely deaths per day that can otherwise be prevented. I realize that there is no absolute cure for death. Death is part of mortality, but I know we can prevent untimely death. Frankly speaking, I don’t need job security. I would be happy to examine only a few cases per day as opposed to 8 or more. I know you would prefer it too.

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Another Friday the 13th

Posted on by bcallor

This morning started out like any other day. The rain that fell for most of the previous day had subsided and the sun was expected to shine. The roads were dry and commuters were sparse.   I was so proud of myself for making good time. I left home later than I should to have made it to work on-time, but because of minimal traffic on Foothill Drive I was on-track for a prompt arrival at the Medical Examiner‘s Office. My 15-year-old Jeep behaved as usual – which is mostly good – until about half a mile from work. Suddenly, and without warning my Jeep died. The medical examiner’s differential diagnosis for cause of death might have been natural causes incident to age and my truck probably wouldn’t have required an autopsy. But I knew the prognosis wasn’t grim. I knew I could save my beloved Cherokee, so I called my wife to arrange an appointment with a service station and a tow truck – stat.

She called our Allstate motor club to bail me out with a tow truck to haul my sick truck to the truck doctor. I remained with my vehicle while I waited for the tow truck to arrive just in case it was spotted by campus police and perhaps towed for obstructing traffic thus turning my bad luck into even worse luck.

Several co-workers spotted me while I waited and stopped to offer assistance since their path to work also crossed mine. (By the way, thank you, Annie, for the Diet Coke.) I later remarked to my wife how sweet it was for them to stop. Thanks Shannon, Sarah, and Ann.

I told the tow truck driver that this couldn’t have happened on a better day. I admitted that I was a bit superstitious. I enjoy reading my daily horoscope and I take the fortunes in Chinese fortune cookies to heart. I enjoyed a 15 min. truck cab conversation about death and the seemingly pointless necessity we [speaking ubiquitously] feel for making dead people look natural through the process of embalming. We finally agreed that some people need to see their loved ones lying, in my opinion, “unnaturally” in caskets in order to provide closure to their feelings of loss. Personally, I prefer donation of all available tissue then cremation of the rest of me. He agreed that cremation was sensible.

My new acquaintance informed me that the company he worked for used to pick up vehicles for law enforcement. Some of the vehicles were from death scenes where people were found dead in their vehicles by all manners of death-mostly suicide. I asked him what became of the vehicles. I was surprised to hear that many of the vehicles were auctioned-off to unsuspecting citizens. He also told me that the one’s that couldn’t sell due to the residual stench of decomposition were shredded and sold for scrap. Conversations regarding death seem to follow me. I wonder why.

Four hours and three hundred dollars later I was back on the road, but not yet back to work and not with my vehicle. My busy but patient wife had to drive me to my office to pick up my wallet so I could pay for the repairs as I had left my wallet in my desk drawer the day before and the company would not accept a personal check-which was all my wife had with her at the time. By the time all was said and done, the day was exhausted and so was I. Needless to say, I did not return to work.

I was amused by a comment made by one of the pathologists when she saw me while I was retrieving my wallet. She said, “Some people will do anything to get out of work.”

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone.

The Real “Body of Proof”, ABC4 News

Posted on by bcallor

Kim Fischer of ABC4 News presented a piece about the Office of the Medical Examiner (OME) this week. The article aired Tuesday night at 10:00 just after the television program, Body of Proof. I thought the story came together very well.

She interviewed Dr. Joe White, one of six medical examiners at the OME. He did a fine job discussing the difference between television and real life. He said that the cases many television programs build upon are true and DO happen, but only occur 1 to 2 times a year in the whole country. He also dispelled the belief that DNA evidence can be obtained and help solve a crime within an hour t.v. program. He said, “In reality things move much more slowly.”

I think that most of you already know or have some idea of the differences between television and reality, but this piece will give you a glimpse into the life of a Utah State Medical Examiner. I even had a brief appearance toward the end of the segment. See if you can spot me. I’ve included a link to ABC4, The Real “Body of Proof”. Please enjoy. I’ve also included pictures taken by myself and staff of Kim’s visit to the OME with her permission, of course, to post them. http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/The-Real-Body-of-Proof/hbC74sPflUusMFMVQo_pZw.cspx

Kim Fischer, (ABC4 News) and Brandon Callor, (OME Morgue Supervisor)

Appropriate work attire for the medical examiner.

Show time.

From left to right: Todd, Josh, Kim, Joe, Dean, Brandon

Day in the Life of a Medical Examiner

Posted on by bcallor

I was informed today by one of our pathologists that a media crew will be visiting our office to film an exposé regarding his job as a medical examiner. I’m not very excited about the visit, but it’s not my call to disallow it.

I would prefer that the media didn’t film in the autopsy suite at all, but the doctor who is being filmed is on duty tomorrow, which means he is expected to be in the autopsy suite for most of the day. (We already have four people to examine tomorrow.) I’ll do my best to respect the individuals who will be examined by covering any identifiable marks or tattoos-including the person’s face and genitalia.

I’ll let you all know how it goes, and I’ll fill you in on when to expect the piece to air. By the way, please respond to this post with your thoughts about whether or not the media should be allowed to film an autopsy. Is this something people actually want to witness? What kinds of things would you like to know regarding a day in the life of a medical examiner? Do you think the media will spin a good light on the duties of a medical examiner’s office or will it just gross-out a lot of people? I would like to hear from you.

As always, thanks for reading. I look forward to your comments.

Pathologists Make House Calls

Posted on by bcallor

This post is in response to a question I received regarding whether or not the autopsy trailer mentioned in my previous post will remain in Salt Lake City. The simple answer is yes. However, I’ve had many informal discussions with the Deputy Chief Investigator and the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner on separate occasions regarding the use of the trailer.

One option involved parking it in Southern Utah thus providing needed coverage to that area of the state. Relocating a forensic pathologist in the southern part of the state would reduce the cost associated with transporting dead bodies to Salt Lake City and back. The current cost to tax payers for transporting a single body from St. George to Salt Lake City and back again is over $600.00. The OME’s greatest expenditure besides personnel is in transportation.

The trailer could be pulled to the location of the death, and the autopsy performed on site. In essence, the pathologist would make house calls. The downfall to this option would be lack of support staff and no local administrative office. However, the logistics of such an endeavour could easily be worked out. Although, somebody would need to crunch the numbers and compare the savings in transportation costs to the cost of a remote, per diem forensic pathology staff including autopsy trailer maintenance.

Option number two involves leaving the trailer parked at the OME in Salt Lake City and traveling to remote locations in Utah when the situation calls. A team would assemble when needed, drawn from current staff members, including a forensic pathologist, medicolegal death investigator, and an autopsy technician. The team would drive together and pull the trailer to the death scene to whatever remote area of Utah requires. Again, somebody would need to crunch the numbers and compare the cost of mortuary transport to that of sending a forensic team to the death location.

In reality, and in my humble opinion, the trailer should remain in Salt Lake City with business as usual. I can’t envision a realistic cost savings to either of the above options. They were mainly off-the-cuff remarks made completely off-the-record.

The true purpose of the trailer is to perform special autopsies that may require complete decontamination of the autopsy station. The trailer’s small, confined area would decontaminate more easily as opposed to a 15,000 square foot building, (the approximate size of the Office of the Medical Examiner.) Transporting the trailer to the death scene would also eliminate the potential contamination of any transport agency that would have otherwise delivered the body to the OME for examination.

At this very moment the trailer parked at the OME in Salt Lake City waiting to be called into action. It is my preference that we never call it into action. For now I’m happy pulling it to various disaster training drills around the state to demonstrate its abilities and to train disaster responders on its functions. Let’s hope that I never have to pull this thing into your town for its intended purpose.

The Other Side of Fifteen Hundred

Posted on by bcallor

Perspective is personal and can prove problematic. I am a glass-half-full thinker, but I work with glass-half-empty personalities. I suppose working for a forensic pathologist and receiving a daily dose of death overtime may create a sophist or worse-case-scenario theorist. On the other hand, maybe pessimism is prerequisite for employment by the medical examiner, and maybe I’m not as optimistic as I thought I was. It’s all about point-of-view.

Regardless of whether skepticism is created by working with “Doctor Death” or is part of the attraction, if left unchecked, problems can ensue. Let me share with you two stories illustrating the problems associated with opposing perspectives.

One day I was working with the medical examiner, as I often do. I had just surgically removed a liver and placed it in the weighing pan. The pan dangled precariously by a hook from a large round analog scale that hung from the ceiling as to rest directly over the autopsy table. A 10-inch, slender, red needle spun around the center of the face of the scale and bounced a few times until it rested its thread-like point on 1450 grams – or so I believed.

From my perspective the long red needle stopped five tick marks short of fifteen-hundred grams, (each tick mark represents 10 grams.) I shouted out the weight so that another assistant, who was clean, could inscribe the number on the autopsy worksheet.

At this point the doctor turned around to retrieve the liver from the pan and hesitated. He stared up at the pale face of the scale and exclaimed, “Well actually, it’s the other side of fifteen-hundred. The actual weight is 1-5-5-0 grams.”

The doctor’s perspective from the other side of the two-faced scale provided the correct weight. It may not seem like a big deal. It’s only 100 gram difference. (That’s about 3.5 ounces.) No big deal, right? Maybe not, but it annoyed the doctor all the same.

Now let me share a story that will illustrate true problems that can arise from differing perspectives. Imagine a cool, dry, August afternoon in southern Utah. Investigators arrived on-scene of what appeared to be a violent homicide. There were tracks leading into the scene, but no tracks out. This fact disturbed investigators. Before them laid the body of a young person, dead, due to a gunshot wound of the chest. Blood surrounded the body and stained the upper clothing. The most disturbing clue of all was lack of a weapon.

The body was transported to Salt Lake City to the Office of the Medical Examiner for further examination. Upon further examination the medical examiner discovered injuries and wound characteristics consistent with close-range, even close-contact weapon firing. The medical examiner informed detectives that the lack of defensive injuries and existence of close-range wound characteristics suggested a self-inflicted gunshot.

Investigators continued to search the scene for any evidence of foul play. Evidence of suicide eluded crime scene techs at the scene until news of the medical examiner’s findings reached them. They took a new approach. Instead of looking solely above ground for evidence they turned below ground. Using a metal detector investigators were able to unearth a weapon from directly beneath the dead body outline.

Test firing of the newly discovered weapon was performed. Markings on the test-fired projectile were compared to the projectile recovered from the body by the medical examiner. The ballistic fingerprinting matched!

According to medicolegal death investigators the decedent was known to have suicidal thoughts. The weapon found at the scene-or should I say below the scene-belonged to the decedent. Autopsy findings including wound characteristics would support a self-inflicted wound. The question remains, was this an intentional act or was this an accident? You be the judge.

A possible scenario: individual arrived alone in a remote place in southern Utah with the intent to commit suicide by handgun. The person dug a hole and after shooting self in the chest dropped the weapon into the hole. The wound wasn’t immediately fatal which provided the person enough time to bury the weapon and lay on top of it. This type of wound also caused the person to flail around long enough to create a bloody mess all over the immediate area before coming to rest atop the shallow gun grave.

You can see the problems that might ensue from limited information or lack of cooperation from all perspectives involved. Alone, homicide detectives might have wasted precious  hours searching for an independent shooter that didn’t exist due to the immediate information recovered from the scene. However, forensic information from the medical examiner combined with medicolegal death investigation and forensic specialists such as ballistic experts provided re-focus. Independent perspectives together painted a complete picture of the situation and saved hundreds of extra tax dollars and unnecessary man-hours.

Let us return to “the other side of fifteen-hundred.” Why are accurate weights important? Answer: In order to properly diagnose disease. The forensic pathologist compares accepted weights of healthy organs to those of the dead. Even the slightest difference in either direction might suggest disease. Therefore, although from my point-of-view I don’t see the ‘big deal’ in a few ounces, the doctor DOES see the importance.

In closing, I would like to share an anecdote. One of the pathologists has a canned response whenever his assistants comment during autopsy.

For example, the assistant might say, “Doctor, this man’s heart looks enlarged.”

The doctor replies, “Sure, to the untrained eye.”