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Blog postOriginally published in MedPage Today August 16, 2018 (https://www.medpagetoday.com/psychiatry/depression/74589)
“My father killed himself when I was 13 years old.” That was the opening line of my medical school admission essay, the one in which I tried to convince an anonymous administrator in another state that, as a suicide survivor, I was specially possessed of both strength and empathy—and that these traits made me specially worthy of becoming a doctor. In the essay I reminisced -
Blog postReasonable Uncertainty: The Limits and Expectations of an Expert’s Testimony. Originally published in Forensic Magazine September 2017, 14, 3:18-19 (https://www.forensicmag.com/article/2017/09/reasonable-uncertainty-limits-and-expectations-experts-testimony)
The lawyer had a gleam in his eye. He had backed me into a corner—or so he thought.
“So, doctor, you just said that the article you referenced indicates that only twenty percent of patients with this di -
Blog postOriginally published in Forensic Magazine June 2017 14,2:23-24. (https://www.forensicmag.com/article/2017/06/expert-witness-jury-duty-inside-box)
Last week I was called to jury duty at my local courthouse, where I have testified as an expert witness before. I showed up. I signed in. I watched two videos explaining how our justice system works. Then I was assigned a courtroom—and this time, instead of addressing the people in the jury box, I found I was one of the people in the jury box. A -
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Blog postBy A.J. Chapman
In the 1970s, “The Six‐Million‐Dollar Man” was a popular television show. It concerned a man who had met with a disaster that extensively destroyed much of his body that was then replaced with bionic parts that gave him incredible strength, x‐ray vision, and the like. In preparing to shoot one episode of the series, the crew was preparing the set, which was at the “Laff in the Dark” fun house in the Nu‐Pike Amusement Park in Long Beach, California. One member of the crew mo -
Blog postThis article was originally published in Forensic Magazine. To read the original article click here (http://digital.forensicmag.com/forensics/september_2016/MobilePagedReplica.action?pg=18#pg18)
The decedent was a bright young woman with a promising acting career. She and a friend had spent hours in her apartment memorizing lines for a new play, and wanted to relax. The actress went into the fridge for a pot brownie she had bought at a music festival the day before. A nibble di -
Blog postThis article was originally published in Forensic Magazine. To read the original article click here (http://digital.forensicmag.com/forensics/june_2016/MobilePagedReplica.action?pg=18#pg18?)
The police pick up a 45 year old man, a robbery convict, for speeding. The arrest is a parole violation. The man has a history of smoking and substance abuse, and is obese. On his third day back in jail, he refuses to cooperate during a routine search of his cell. The corrections officers a -
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Blog postIt was one of the toughest phone conversations I have made in my 15 years as a forensic pathologist. I had just completed the autopsy of a three month-old infant. He had spent the night sharing an adult bed with his mother and six year-old brother. In the morning they found him prone, with his face against the pillow, dead. During the autopsy I found that blood had pooled under the skin of the baby’s face and abdomen after death, and I documented characteristic areas of pallor where the pillow
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Blog postThis article was originally published in Forensic Magazine. To read the original article click here (http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2016/03/ethics-and-forensic-expert-what-would-you-do)
An attorney asks you to change your report by omitting mention of evidence that is in dispute. Omitting the information does not alter your opinion; in fact, it significantly strengthens it, but this makes you vulnerable to cross-examination if it is admitted. Do you change your report to o -
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Blog postThis article was originally published in Forensic Magazine. To read the original article click here (http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2015/12/forensic-radiology-and-medical-examiner)
It was the first time I had to testify in a case without a dead body. The patient was a 30 year-old Hispanic man who got into a fight with another guy on the street. The emergency room physician told me "it looked like someone tap danced on his face." He had severe facial injuries, inc -
Blog postThis article was originally published in Forensic Magazine. To read the original article click here (http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2015/10/five-case-studies-forensic-toxicology)
As a practicing forensic pathologist in a busy urban office, I am confronted every week with a stack of toxicology reports from my cases. Most are simple to interpret—the multiple GSW with (inconsequential) trace cocaine; the slam-dunk OD with a needle in his arm and sky high 6-MAM from heroin. Then ther -
Blog postThis article was originally published in Forensic Magazine. To read the original article click here.
When a breaking news case involves a sudden, unnatural or violent death, journalists will often get a copy of the autopsy report. Autopsy reports can be daunting to read if you have not been trained in medicine. Because of this, reports in the media can be confusing or misleading to the public. Here, then, are some definitions and guidelines for anyone reading or writing about death -
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Blog postForensics by Val McDermid - Nonfiction - Grove Press 2015
Disclosure: Free pre-publication copy received from the publisher in exchange for review/promotion
Val McDermid is a Scottish crime writer, the multiple best-selling author of more than 30 books, including The Wire in the Blood, A Darker Domain, and The Skeleton Road. Now she has written a nonfiction primer about forensics, covering in each chapter a different discipline of the field: crime scene investigation, fire inv -
Blog postby Brodie Butler, Biology/Humanities major at Azusa Pacific University
“…I was made to do this.”
That’s what I tried to convince myself as I was slumped over in the library at ungodly hours of the night or fumbling to complete a titration in chemistry lab. I have known since I was a junior in high school that I wanted to become a forensic pathologist. However, there have always been certain doubts lingering in the back of my mind. Am I really cut out for this? Do I even have wh -
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Blog postQ - In your memoir, Good Cop, Bad Daughter, you describe San Francisco in the 60s and 70s, where you grew up and then became a police officer. In your opinion, how did the anti-war movement affect public perceptions of the police, and how have these perceptions changed over time?
A - We are living through a time that feels remarkably like my childhood years, in the 1960’s. Police are, once again, perceived as the enemy by a large segment of society, and the public focus has bee -
Blog postWhat is your definition of a forensic pathologist?A forensic pathologist is a doctor who is trained to perform autopsies to figure out the cause of death and is also trained in death investigations to figure out the manner of death. The cause of death is the disease or injury that starts the lethal sequence of events without sufficient intervening causes. The manner of death is a system that classifies the cause of death as either natural, accident, suicide, homicide or undetermined. Forensic pa
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Blog postSince the publication last year of my New York Times bestselling book Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner, I have found myself in the public eye as an expert in my field of forensic pathology. When a high-profile death investigation hits the news, journalists from all over the U.S., and occasionally other countries, call and ask me to "explain the autopsy" to them. Autopsy reports can be daunting to read if you have not
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Blog post1. Is the pathologist certified by the American Board of Pathology?
This is the most important qualification for an expert witness in the field of pathology. Just because an expert claims to be "board-certified" does not mean he or she is. Not all board certifications are the same. The American Board of Pathology is the only board offering certification in forensic pathology in which the applicant has the following qualifications:
Graduated with an M.D. or D.O. Degree from -
Blog postThese are a couple of articles pertaining to coroners' races this Election Day that I have come across in the last week, the first from Indiana, and the second from Washington:
"Candidates for Porter County Coroner Both Tout Experience"&"Coroner Cites Criminal Probe Background in Re-election Bid"
Why is the coroner an elected position? If you read the first article you would think that all a coroner does is go to schools and talk about drug -
Blog postA reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called me earlier this week, saying she had Michael Brown's official autopsy report as prepared by the St. Louis County Medical Examiner, and asking me if I would examine and analyze it from the perspective of a forensic pathologist with no official involvement in the Ferguson, Missouri shooting death. I read the report, and spent half an hour on the phone with the reporter explaining Michael Brown's autopsy report line-by-line, and I told her not to q
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Blog post1. Many reviews and press events about Working Stiff list Judy Melinek as the sole author, even though the book is co-authored by T.J. Mitchell. Do you think this is due to his role as a homemaker? Would Judy's appearance in the media standing by her writer-husband detract from her status as a strong female media figure? Is Judy a “character” the press wants to explore in their stories, even outside the confines of her character role in her own book?2. What role does New York City play in the bo
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Blog post"Partial autopsies yield partial answers" Dr. Charles Hirsch taught me as a young doctor during my forensic pathology fellowship training in New York City, in 2001-2003. This was one of scores of aphorisms we called "Hirschisms," which he employed to instruct us about forensic pathology. Another one was, "Don't confuse the autopsy with the death investigation."
Both come to mind this week in the wake of the release of the findings of the second Michael -
Blog post"An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field."
Niels Bohr
When I review others' reports and find mistakes I always try to learn from them because it is always easier to learn from others' mistakes than to make and learn from your own.
No one is immune to mistakes. It is what makes us human. The question is how do we, as scientists and experts, deal with our errors? Do we ignore them? Deny them? Or d -
Blog postIs it common for coroners or forensic pathologists to cut corners in a death investigation if a case does not look like foul play was involved? Several visitors to this blog have asked me this question recently, as part of their research into forensic science. Usually those inquiring have had direct contact with a Medical Examiner's or Coroner's Office - and did not find that institution particularly forthcoming. Office policies require death investigators to be careful about divulgi
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Blog postRecently in the news, North Carolina Medical Examiners were criticized for violating State law for not examining bodies or doing forensic death investigations in sudden or suspicious deaths that fell under their jurisdiction. In a five part series published by the Charlotte Observer, which contains heartbreaking testimonials by family members who were harmed by inadequate or incomplete death rulings, the Chief Medical Examiner for the State, Deborah Radisch MD, pointed out that North Carol
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Blog postI occassionally get calls from families requesting I perform autopsies on a relative because the family was concerned that the care in the long-term care facility or hospice was a contributor to the death. Many of these calls come from out of state because people find my blog on the internet, or were referred by an attorney who may have consulted me in the past. Here is some general advice for those of you who have concerns that the care at a nursing facility was in any way responsible for the d
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