Forensic pathologist's career caused PTSD

[coroner]

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According to Dr. Richard Shepard, one of the most distinguished forensic pathologists from the UK.

The forensic pathologist who got PTSD: "Cutting up 23,000 dead bodies is not normal"

 

[peachesorangesapples]

I still get PTSD from the diffluent spleen in autopsy the other day. So gross. So bloody.

 

[deleted314957]

I can see it. I was one of the folks (doing aerospace path rotation at AFIP)
who ID’ed and posted the 256 souls who died when the 101st Airborne went down in Gander in Dec 1986. A little bit of PTSD there.

 

[Thrombus]

I get it! Any autopsy on a kid should give any one with a soul PTSD

FPN!!

 

[Iceman24]

I have no soul then.

 

[y2k_free_radical]

I get it! Any autopsy on a kid should give any one with a soul PTSD

FPN!!

Some of them do,especially early in my career when i also had to do coroner's cases.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Growing up on a farm made me into a sociopath.

 

[coroner]

I was one of the folks (doing aerospace path rotation at AFIP)
who ID’ed and posted the 256 souls who died when the 101st Airborne went down in Gander in Dec 1986. A little bit of PTSD there.

I always questioned the utility of these types of forensic cases in mass tragedies. What is the purpose when everybody knows the manner and cause of death? Just to have a legal, documented record in case of there's some type of investigation or to provide closure for families, I guess. But it's not like you're looking for a MI the moment before the accident, or carbon monoxide poisoning thus pointing to foul play. Any of which I guess is possible, but unlikely...

 

[deleted314957]

I always questioned the utility of these types of forensic cases in mass tragedies. What is the purpose when everybody knows the manner and cause of death? Just to have a legal, documented record in case of there's some type of investigation or to provide closure for families, I guess. But it's not like you're looking for a MI the moment before the accident, or carbon monoxide poisoning thus pointing to foul play. Any of which I guess is possible, but unlikely...[/QUOTE

Your question is valid and very typical of people with limited aerospace forensic exposure.
The answer is long and complicated. Just a couple points:
Terrorism- everything is looked at for bomb evidence. Films and types of body injuries can help. Toxicology on all crew. Determine who was flying.
We’re they alive in a fire? The whole evaluation is very integrated with the hardware experts. Of supreme importance is accurate i’d of the dead and
getting remains together. Ain’t easy when a DC 10 goes down with
freshly filled tanks. I could go on and at each point folks say” Hmm, never thought about that”.

 

[MSTP18]

I always questioned the utility of these types of forensic cases in mass tragedies. What is the purpose when everybody knows the manner and cause of death? Just to have a legal, documented record in case of there's some type of investigation or to provide closure for families, I guess. But it's not like you're looking for a MI the moment before the accident, or carbon monoxide poisoning thus pointing to foul play. Any of which I guess is possible, but unlikely...

In addition to what mike sheree said, a lot of financial/legal things depend on having a death certificate which is a lot easier when autopsies are performed on all the victims of such an event.

It can become a big legal pickle if someone is presumed dead only to later discover they were not actually at the site of the disaster (or managed to escape/survive) and turn up alive. It's also a problem if you initially declare a certain number of casualties only to discover that one body was counted 10 times because it was in pieces or that a lot of the smaller bones are animal bones or the event happened over a site that had bodies buried there 50+ years ago that are now intermingled with the victims, etc.