Medical Examiner

1. Medical Examiner

2. Medical Examiner’s Responsibilities • Identify the deceased • Establish the time and date of death • Determine a medical cause of death (the injury or disease that resulted in the person dying) • Determine the mechanism of death (the physiological reason that the person died) • Classify the manner of death Natural – cancer, old age, heart attach Accidental – car accident, trip down the stairs and hit head Suicide Homicide – a person taking the life of another Undetermined • Notify the next of kin Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

3. The Medical Examiner and the Coroner A medical examiner is a medical doctor, usually a pathologist, and is appointed by the governing body of the area. There are 400 forensic pathologists throughout the U.S. A coroner is an elected official who usually has no special medical training. In four states, the coroner is a medical doctor. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

4. 2 general types of autopsies • Hospital (clinical) autopsy – performed to satisfy educational interests. Helps to determine the mechanism of death. Information obtained through the autopsy is only available to the next of kin • Forensic autopsy – is performed in the public interest and benefits those outside the medical circle. Provides answers posed by family, friends, lawyers, insurance agent, courts & physicians

5. Rigor Mortis – the stiffness • Skeletal muscles contract – they become tighter…think about sore muscles after a hard workout • Joints stiffen & lock in place • Can occurring within 10 minute of death or take several hours…deals with personal body chemistry • The body will stay very stiff for up to 72 hours (3 days)

6. Chemistry of Rigor Mortis • Our cells use oxygen we breath in to burn glycogen as energy for our bodies • After Death = No Oxygen • anaerobic glycolysis makes lactic and pyruvic acids • Lactic & pyruvic acid is what gives you sore muscles after a hard workout • pH in you body decreases from a normal healthy 7.4 to acidic levels (below 7) due to lactic & pyruvic acid production • Acid promotes a reaction between actin and myosin which work together to contract the muscle • Muscle shortens until all ATP is used up! This can take up to 72 hours

7. Muscle Contraction

8. Livor Mortis • When your HEART is beating the blood is mixing! • Therefore, when the HEART stops beating the blood stops mixing…. • Red blood cells are heavy & dense so they sink • Maroon to blue color develops at lowest points (cover your eyes for the next slide if you are squimish) • Visible 30 minutes-2 hours after death • Tells you if the body was moved.

9. Livor Mortis

10. Algor Mortis • Body cools by • Radiation • the higher the body temperature the more heat lost • Conduction depends on surface contact • faster if in water because enhanced surface contact • Convection • Wind cools faster • Rate of cooling of body after death • 1.5 °F per hour under “normal conditions” • No real conditions are “normal”

11. Algor Mortis 98.6 F = 1.5x + b F x = 6 hours Solve for b and figure out the persons body temp after 6 hours. Check the graph.