The medical examiner office begins a normal day with a morning case meeting. The meeting will basically “talk” (you will know why it is quoted later) about the cases they received since yesterday afternoon to that morning.
We went to the morning case meeting every day. Honestly, I was expecting a more structured meeting instead of a casual one like this. Morning case meeting begins with a summary of number of cases, and certain basic profile of the cases. For example, name of the deceased, ancestry, age, where was the last where-about. If the deceased was from a crime scene, the M.E. at the scene and the death investigator are also listed on the sheet. Of course, each case summary comes with a summary of the preliminary conditions of the expired body.
The M.E. will pick the cases they are going to work on later that morning for autopsies. The death investigator, who chaired the meeting (literally everyday) had already prepared all the related case files on the conference table. Once the doctor has picked the case(s), they will start referring to the pathological histories in order to get hold of the details of deceased’s life. And the meeting ends when all the cases are claimed. Doctors will leave when they want to. It’s quite different from what we encounter on TV, at least in my interned facility.
Autopsy usually begins 30 mins to an hour (depends on if the body is ready or arrived) after the meeting. And this particular day I am talking below was very busy as they have 8 cases came in and to take care of.
Out of the eight, we observed the one with a pregnant woman and an unborn child.
First thing they did in the autopsy was to confirm if the lady was really pregnant, as “she was obese and pregnant” was stated in the description in the case. They first tried to locate her uterus, examined the conditions of it, and confirmed she was pregnant.
The autopsy was normal in terms the conditions of organs, and the conditions of the unborn child. The M.E. claims that the more normal the deceased body is, the higher the chance will be getting a positive toxic screening. That is to say, it is more likely to be a homicide, or sometimes suicide.
The autopsy of the unborn child strikes me. When the doctor just opened up the lady’s uterus, and brought out the placenta, together with the “water”, it hits me. The baby looked so matured—you can see her features on both faces and limbs are all developed. I know to be an expert that works with death a lot would definitely come across this kind of tragic event, and definitely have to learn to deal with it. It does not mean that I cannot handle it, but I did question myself continuously who would do that to a mother-to- be and an innocent baby. This simple question explains the need of forensic specialists around the globe, as they can help provide closure to families. Of course, it would not be possible to provide closures for every family like justice is always restored in TV criminal dramas but definitely try to do so for as many families as they can.
After finished with the mother’s autopsy, we were discussing should we do the autopsy to the baby as well. The responsible M.E. said usually they do not if there is no signs showing the baby may be got harmed. But later, they decided to go with a green light.
Opening up a developing fetus was not easy! The whole body is still pretty soft and fragile. The body development of a fetus is fascinating. Seeing all the organs develop and grow from such a small size to a fully developed size amuses me. The most amusing part is the softness of the brain of the fetus. It is super soft to an extent that is nearly liquefied when they cut the brain open. The fully developed adult brain does not solidify much. It is still soft but at least it held its shape.
Previous Episodes:
Forensic Anthropology Internship Series Ep.1: Getting to the Bones…