This May Be Bad....

So I spent a day shadowing the coroner for Las Vegas (who is also my pathology professor). I had an AWESOME time!!! That's the part I think is bad....I had a good time at the coroner's ofifice. Who says that???

We started the day off at the office in the morning meeting. They go over all the bodies they received the night before and who's assigned to do the autopsy. Then we had to be at the court for Simms to testify in a serial murder trial. A guy killed 3 women before they caught him. I sat in the courtroom and heard opening arguments and then Simms testimony. They're high tech here in Vegas. He has a screen in front of him that he draws on like the sports broadcasters do. He points out findings on the pictures of the bodies to the jurors. It was so interesting.

After the courthouse we went back to the office to start our autopsy. We only had one we were assigned so I was a little disappointed, but I shouldn't have been. It was a good one to have. He was a 36 y/o male that didn't show up for work and was found dead in his apartment. He had blood coming from his mouth and nose and was found with darvocet around him. Before we did the autopsy we discussed possible differentials for the patient. Mainly GI problems like an ulcer, varices, Mallory-Weiss tear.... Then we started our external exam of the body. We found that he had a scratch/cut on his right arm, a bruise on his LLQ, and a cut on his right anterior superior thorax. We had the body x-rayed without significant findings. Then we opened him up. He had a HUGE hemothorax. We ladeled 1.5 LITERS of blood out of his pleural space and we found a wound in the lung that was 2 1/2 inches long. THE GUY WAS TOTALLY STABBED TO DEATH!!! And the scratch on his arm was probably a defensive wound. It was a cool case, totally unexpected.

I don't know if I could do forensic pathology as a career, but I want more exposure to it to decide. I'm going to try and do one of my 3rd year rotations in it. It was so cool.