Reflections of a Forensic Pathologist
I am an author from Syracuse, New York, and the former chief medical examiner of Onondaga County. Performing thousands of autopsies in my career, I have developed a strong voice for my deceased patients. I feel intimately acquainted with the biologic and human perspectives of death — particularly in cases of violence and suffering. My creative non-fiction explores the personal perspectives of these cases and the indelible imprint of humanity they have left on me.
Dots of sweat gather above my industrial safety glasses. Overhead lights glimmer, reflecting on the stainless steel of the table. The air is humid despite the air-conditioning, and heat emanates in waves. A butcher’s apron over my surgical scrubs lays heavily at my neck, the waistband tied too tightly. Privacy-glass windows, along one wall, above my head, reveal the dark […]
The mountain bike flips on its side, front wheel still spinning, as the boy hurries up the two cement steps to the trailer. The screen door has barely enough life to creak shut. “Hello?” he yells, his prepubescent voice cracking. But the only other sound is the numbers flipping to seven AM on the old GE clock. In a long […]
Duct tape has a benign beginning. Vesta Stoudt, who worked in a WWII ordinance factory, noticed flimsy closures on the ammunition boxes and recommended a stronger cloth tape. This led to the development of a polyethylene coated fabric strip by Johnson & Johnson. Designed to be torn by hand, no scissors needed, it is easy to apply and remove. The plastic […]
If you’re quiet, you can hear them munching and crunching. It happens when hundreds of them congregate for a feast of decomposing flesh. They are still juveniles at this voracious eating stage in their life cycle as flies. Initially, they are white specks laid by their mothers in wet, moist regions of abandoned human bodies — the eyes, the nose, […]
Final Words 