Posted 4:12 PM by Blah blah

Dead Body Blog (Forensic Medicine)

Uggh! This new blog gives me the chills. Read

Autopsy Report, about "experiences as an intern for the medical examiner." CSI in real-life. I quote from June 17:

"Today I saw some of the more gruesome things that I have seen so far. The first involved a man that had been drinking and then met up with a bunch of trees in his car. The accident subsequently turned into a human barbeque (MMmmmm BBQ -I couldn't resist that one). He reminded of times when I have left chicken on the grill for too long. He was burnt to a crisp. He was blackened from head to toe. They are going to need dental records to identify this chap. It was interesting to see how they are able to determine if he died before he burned or if he burned alive (luckily for him, this guy died before being burnt). If he had elevated levels of carbon monoxide in his blood, that would suggest that he was alive while burning. They also look at the lungs to see if there is a large amount of soot to suggest that he aspirated smoke. Then came the ever enjoyable task of sewing this roast turkey up, which of course I had the honor of doing. Most of the time, the skin is flexible and fairly elastic. However, not this guy. The fact that his skin was burnt made it kind of brittle. It was very difficult to sew.

Then we had the homicide/suicide. This fella decided to shoot his ex-wife in the chest followed by a shot to the head before swallowing one for himself. The chest shot did not kill her, but was plenty to knock her down. The damage was done by a shot to the head, which basically exploded the back of her skull into pieces. He then put the shotgun to his mouth and pointed up. This basically exploded his entire head. At a quick glance it looks like he is decapitated, but upon further inspection you can see the lower jaw mixed in with the bloody mess of a neck.

Then we had the guy who was stabbed in his chest by his disgruntled wife. It was a pretty clear-cut case (pun intended). No findings that were too out of the ordinary with this one. Just a stab wound to the heart. The other cases we had were fairly straightfoward, such as the guy who thought it would be a good idea to take his sport motorcycle out for a spin at 110 mph. I guess it wasn't such a good idea after all. As I mentioned before, we have a bunch of cases waiting for us tomorrow. Until then, wait in suspense."

He also notes that HBO makes a series about forensics, called Autopsy. Fascinating site.

If you want more blood and gore, read Crime Library, my favorite site about gruesome stories of famous crimes. It's really addictive.