Day 5

Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Case 1
Caucasian F, approx 40 YO
Hx of Lupus
COD poss. aortic embolism.
Deceased was not posted yesterday due to workload.

Case 2
Caucasian M, approx 25-30 YO
MVA
Multiple fractures and soft tissue injuries.
Ring fracture of the base of the skull.
Severe, multiple subdural hematomas
Lacerated spleen.
Gastric was plentiful, but dark and frothy, essentially composed of blood.
COD injuries due to MVA

Case 3

Caucasian M, approx 60 YO
Natural(?)
Deceased was tissue donor, full-thickness skin stripped from both legs, entire back.
COD advanced atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

Case 4

Caucasian M, approx 40 YO
MVA
Deceased had lg. quantities of blood draining from ears when turned.
Multiple fractures and soft tissue injuries
Severe multiple subdural hematomas
Ring fracture of the base of the skull, completely separated and mobile.
COD injuries due to MVA

Case 5

Asian F, approx 45-50 YO
Suicide GSW to the head
Bullet entered L. parietal, exited slightly behind on R. pariental
Small caliber weapon
R. eye bulging, lacerated
Hyper-hydrated
COD suicide GSW to the head.

Case 6

Black M, approx 25-30 YO
Suicide by CO inhalation
Not autopsied today due to workload.

The first autopsy assisted with today was the younger MVA. He was tall and thin, and perhaps would have been handsome in life, but now, his two front teeth had been punched from their sockets by his impact with the windshield and made a blood-crusted V, a little pointed canal with a rusty line in its center, in toward his throat. His lower lip, I could see, when Dr. O. pulled in down to check the teeth, was badly, deeply bitten on the inside, and a laceration from the canine ran down from the left corner of the mouth. He had fairy-specks of greeny windshield glass scattered over his shoulders and stuck in the blood-matted hair at the back of his head and when we turned him to his side for photos, very dark blood dripped sluggishly from the downward-facing ear and ran over the blue plastic of the autopsy table to the drain at the bottom to dribble into the sink.

He was the youngest autopsy I have yet had. His organs were beautiful, the lungs pink and healthy, though sopped with blood from soft tissue damage, his heart dark browny-red and lined delicately, minimally, along the valves with tiny flattened buttons of fat. The spleen had only minor lacerations, but it is a blood-rich organ, delicate and easily ruptured or split, perhaps the very easiest to bleed out from internally.

The liver was very pretty indeed, as livers go, deep, dull purple-red, and smooth, the head bulging and the tail flat and tapered all around the edges, like the dark, smooth flipper of some aquatic mammal.

I had intended to take drawings from this autopsy, for the body was lean and the muscle and bone structure clear and elongate, the man young and in good health. I was unable to, for as soon as I recalled I had meant to, we had begun. Later, I took plentiful drawings at autopsy of the 40 YO MVA. Though his external structure was less clearly defined, his organs were equally healthy and normal, the lungs even pinker and stronger.

The 60 YO tissue donor had a distinguished walrus moustache. The 40 YO MVA, the one I drew, had a completely detached ring fracture of the basilar skull, the second that day, which, given pressure, would allow the entire skull to be pushed in, pop back out, push in, pop out. The GSW was over-hydrated, the abdominal cavity overflowing with clearish bloody fluid, the copious fat gloppy and gelatinous. Snot-colored gastric still flowed sluggishly from either side of the mouth and the face was swollen and shiny, the tissue surrounding the popped eyeball purple and puffed. The bullet holes, both entrance and exit, were precise and absolutely textbook, beveled and round for the entrance, pulpy and stellate for the exit.

Angie invited me on a call, a suicide by CO poisoning. I would have liked to go, it would have been my first scene, but Matt wanted to see it, and since it was outside and I liked being relatively toasty in the morgue (50 to 60 degrees is better than 21), I told him he should go. He seems a bit more confident and, though still awkward, bright and friendly, now that he knows everyone a bit more. Meanwhile, I’ve been promoted to the status of “the intern who actually knows what she’s doing” from “dweeby, awkward high school student”, and now I get to help on externals officially, take photos, help with the class that stopped in today. Greg and Angie and Charity and even Dr. W. know my name by heart, finally, and call on me to give assistance in things, usually minor, which is nice of them. I really do have a bit of respect now, from Greg at least, since he saw a bit of pre-autopsy sketching I did of that MVA and gushed about it almost embarrassingly.

“That’s damn good,” he said, and he was right—despite the workload today, everything was damn good.