An Open Autopsy On America

This book is an exposé on how America is responding to tumultuous activities since her founding. It has become obvious to most Americans that their nation has hit the crossroads of a paradigm of events. The author, on the other hand, as a member of this society began to study intensely what was going on and what effects people were going through when the standing president Barack Obama would say one thing and then do exactly the opposite through executive fiat. The stealing of documents by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, her use of her own personal server for the dispersal of departmental and top secret emails is astounding. Advanced knowledge of a terrorist attack is one thing; however, it remains a quagmire when both the secretary of state as well as the president concoct lies to trick and fool the American people. The crucial notion of the system of checks and balances on each branch of government is lost without US Constitutional oversight. Therefore, when one finds that the Internal Revenue Service or a former director of the FBI is found operating for another person’s charitable foundation who just so happens to be running for the Office of the President is disastrous. America is not unlike any other nation on earth; however, when people are given the power to live above the law in a “rule of law” established and guaranteed in a nation, that is when someone needs to write a book about the discovery.

A death occurs at home, in a hospital, on a street: why? As Jeffrey Jentzen reveals, we often never know. Why is the American system of death investigation so inconsistent and inadequate? What can the events of the assassination of President Kennedy, killing of Bobby Kennedy, and Chappaquiddick reveal about the state of death investigation? If communities in early America had a coroner at all, he was politically appointed and poorly trained. As medicine became more sophisticated and the medical profession more confident, physicians struggled to establish a professionalized, physician-led system of death investigation. The conflict between them and the coroners, as well as politicians and law enforcement agencies, led to the patchwork of local laws and practices that persist to this day. In this unique political and cultural history, Jentzen draws on archives, interviews, and his own career as a medical examiner to look at the way that a long-standing professional and political rivalry controls public medical knowledge and public health.

A revealing history of covering up the true causes of deaths of BIPOC in custody—from the forensic pathologist whose work changed the course of the George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown cases Dr. Michael Baden has been involved in some of the most high-profile civil rights and police brutality cases in US history, from the government’s 1976 re-investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the 2014 death of Michael Brown, whose case sparked the initial Ferguson protests that grew into the Black Lives Matter movement. The playbook hasn’t changed since 1979, when Dr. Baden was demoted from his job as New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner after ruling that the death of a Black man in police custody was a homicide. So in 2020 when the Floyd family, wary of the same system that oversaw George Floyd’s death, needed a second opinion—Dr. Baden is who they called. In these pages, Dr. Baden chronicles his six decades on the front lines of the fight for accountability within the legal system—including the long history of medical examiners of using a controversial syndrome called excited delirium (a term that shows up in the pathology report for George Floyd) to explain away the deaths of BIPOC restrained by police. In the process, he brings to life the political issues that go on in the wake of often unrecorded fatal police encounters and the standoff between law enforcement and those they are sworn to protect. Full of behind-the-scenes drama and surprising revelations, American Autopsy is an invigorating—and enraging—read that is both timely and crucial for this turning point in our nation’s history.

Matlock, who served in the USSR for most of his career, including as ambassador during the Reagan and Bush administrations, gives this insider's look at the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

Handbook of Autopsy Practice, Fourth Edition is divided into three parts. Part I contains six new chapters in which the reader will find an assortment of tools that will increase the value of the autopsy. Included in the section are valuable resources and tools such as a sample next-of-kin letter, a quality assurance worksheet, new discourse on the dissection procedure which is accompanied by a worksheet and template for the gross description. There is also a new, detailed discussion of the safe handling of sharps, complete with photographs and the reader will also find the updated requirements of the Eye Bank of America and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ocular tissue transplantation. Part II has been updated with new diseases and recent references added. Practicing autopsy pathologists, residents and students are invited to review this alphabetical listing of disorders before each autopsy in order to re-acquaint themselves with what they might encounter. Part III provides a series of tables providing organ weights and body measurements for fetuses, children and adults. Handbook of Autopsy Practice Fourth Edition is an essential resource for clinicians, pathologists, residents and students who strive to hone their trade and increase the value of the autopsies they perform.

"Gripping . . . a brilliant insider's view." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Go behind the scenes inside the nation's preeminent Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where good people fight the good fight amid the tragedies and absurdities of our age Perfect for fans of Michael Lewis and David Simon (Homicide, The Corner, The Wire, We Own This City) Real life is different from what gets depicted on procedural crime dramas. Equipped with a journalist’s eye, a paramedic’s experience and a sardonic wit, Bruce Goldfarb spent ten years with Maryland’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where every sudden or unattended death in the state is scrutinized. Touching on numerous scandals, including Derek Chauvin's trial for the murder of George Floyd and the tragic killing in police custody of Freddie Gray, Goldfarb pulls back the curtain on a pioneer institution in crisis. Medical examiners and the investigators and technicians who support them play vital roles in the justice and public health systems of every American community. During Goldfarb’s time with the Maryland OCME, opioid-related deaths contributed to a significant increase in their workload. Faced with a chronic shortage of qualified experts and inadequate funding, their important and fascinating work has become more challenging than most people could ever imagine. The public gets a skewed view of the relationship between police and medical examiners from procedural crime dramas, Bruce Goldfarb writes of his work inside one of America's most storied forensic centers. We aren’t on the same team . . . We aren’t on any team. The medical examiner’s sole duty is to the deceased person. We speak for the dead. -- Praise for Bruce Goldfarb's 18 Tiny Deaths "An engrossing and accessible chronicle of . . . the early years of scientific detection." — The Wall Street Journal "Devotees of TV's CSI will have their minds blown." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies to conduct a workshop that would examine the interface of the medicolegal death investigation system and the criminal justice system. NIJ was particularly interested in a workshop in which speakers would highlight not only the status and needs of the medicolegal death investigation system as currently administered by medical examiners and coroners but also its potential to meet emerging issues facing contemporary society in America. Additionally, the workshop was to highlight priority areas for a potential IOM study on this topic. To achieve those goals, IOM constituted the Committee for the Workshop on the Medicolegal Death Investigation System, which developed a workshop that focused on the role of the medical examiner and coroner death investigation system and its promise for improving both the criminal justice system and the public health and health care systems, and their ability to respond to terrorist threats and events. Six panels were formed to highlight different aspects of the medicolegal death investigation system, including ways to improve it and expand it beyond its traditional response and meet growing demands and challenges. This report summarizes the Workshop presentations and discussions that followed them.

Best-selling author of Simple Church and the runaway hit I am a Church Member, Thom Rainer uses his twenty-five years of experience helping churches grow and reverse the trends of decline to expose twelve lessons on how to keep your church alive!