Well Happy Thanksgiving everyone. As many of you know I came under fire again by CNN. Such a great news worthy station. Lets look at the real facts of the story. Former Andrew County Coroner, Ron Crouse, had us document a subdural on a man who died. The story was he had been attacked by his grandson who also attacked his grandmother at the same time. It was never reported to the cops until a few days later after this man was walking and acting weird and fell and hit his head. While at the hospital for this fall it was revealed he had a few days prior been assaulted by his grandson. The grandmother who also was assaulted was defending her grandson. When we got involved the body had already been involved and evidence destroyed. The coroner asked if we could at least document the bleed on his brain, which was all confirmed by CT when this man was being treated at the hospital. We documented the bleed. Later, we asked for all medical records, including that of the grandmother, and for all the police reports. We never got those and put on the report pending further police investigation. Two years later it stays that way. It was my fault for not changing the cover sheet to reflect the correct pathologist. Honest mistake. My current pathologist is ready, able, and willing to finish the report but we have yet to get the records we requested. The problems with prosecuting this case is the fact that the assault was never reported and this man fell two or three days after the assault. We were asked by investigators if we could say the bleed on the brain was only the result of the assault and not the fall. With the two events being so close together we cannot say if the bleed was the result of one or the other. Because of that and because of the embalming prior to autopsy and lack of other evidence the prosecutor didnt pursue the case. He could have if he wanted to even without our report being completed. The body that we have from Phelps County has been safe and secure in our morgue. Under KS law we cannot release it except to the coroner, who sent me an email saying he was getting the run around from the family and would have to file for the county to take custody of the body. We havent heard from him since. We have reached out with no response. I have called the prosecutor of Phelps County to file a complaint. This prosecutor is a friend and I have testified for him in the past. It will finally get resolved. The brain case is an interesting one. My original pathologist didnt finish the report. My hands were tied as I cannot finish reports without a pathologist. I have since had a Board Certified Neuropathologist complete the report. I was sued and accused of loosing and damaging the brain. I brought the brain to my deposition and asked that they take custody of the brain. I even offered to pay for DNA testing because I have nothing to hide. The brain was never damaged or lost. I take fault in not finding another pathologist sooner to complete the report, but if I was a fraud then I would have completed the report myself and purported it to be by another person. I would NEVER do that and would rather face a suit with false accusations, like loosing or damaging a brain, then to face practicing medicine without a license. The mortuary. Well lets just put it this way. The body brought in was all bones. Some insects were present but contained in the body bag. Gwen was ok keeping the body in her facility and later after we did the autopsy at her mortuary, she brought it to our morgue in Topeka. Gwen would have reason to hate me. Her funeral home has no business and we paid a per body fee and used her to transport our cases. Doing 8 to 10 cases a week we were her lifeline. We had a falling out because we released a body into her care after an autopsy. The body sat out in the normal temp room and was never embalmed as she promised to do for a funeral home in St Louis where this body was going. I told this funeral home to use Gwen when we are done for the trade embalming. Yet the body sat for three days. I got a call from the mother of this child crying asking why we havent released the body. I showed her our release form and she later discovered Gwen was being lazy and not doing her job. The funeral home from St Louis finally had to come pick the body up, without the promise of it being embalmed, and they left. Thankfully the funeral home in St Louis was able to have a good viewing for the family to say goodbye. After that I was done using Gwen. So you can see her hatred towards me. I knew getting involved with the Michael Brown case would cause my enemies to come out of the wood works. I really dont care. I am not a fraud, not a con-artist, and I do a professional job as a pathologist assistant trained in forensic pathology. Also, you dont have to have certification or an MD to be able to testify in court. I have two court cases coming up in Jan. One for the defense and one for the prosecution. I have been deemed an expert by the courts in MO, KS, TX, and GA. And my expertise is based off of my credentials as a pathologist assistant. I have never claimed to be an MD or DO. Never even claimed to have a degree in forensic pathologist assistant, because it doesnt exist. Those words were put into my mouth by Eric Mitchell, who happens to be my competition and hates the fact I have taken business from him when he use to be the only game in town since 1994. Professor title. Well, I have a contract with Washburn signed by myself, my wife, the Dean of Nursing, and President Farley. I didnt feel the need to share that with CNN and I was told my title as Adjunct Professor. I also still have an active contract with Wichita State and the pathologist assistant program is on hold. My title there is Adjunct Professor. Neither schools pay me to teach. Its my way of giving back to the community. Lastly, I never told those two deputies from Andrew County I was a pathologist. Lets look at that. We had been doing cases for Andrew County for a couple of years at that point and they had worked with me in the past. Plus an investigator from the MO Hwy Patrol was there and I had worked with him on several other cases. And, the Deputy Coroner for Andrew County was there and was working for me at that time as my investigator. So, why in the hell would I say I was a pathologist when all of these people in the room knew who I was and knew what my job title was. Sadly CNN wants to make controversy. But interestingly enough, Anderson Cooper had me on his show twice to discuss the shooting of Michael Brown. Says I am an expert in all of these things, then turns around and does this? Does that make sense to you? Doesnt to me at all. But again, I was thrown into the spotlight and I knew this would happen. Has my business had ups and downs? Of course, who hasnt had ups and downs in life in general. But the media latches onto something and says only what they want you to hear. They didnt report any of the above information because it wouldnt get them the story they wanted. So here I sit, on Thanksgiving telling myself to let it go. I have to continue doing what I do best. I have to continue my education, which I am doing, and I have to keep helping those who need help when no one else will step forward. Thats what I did with Michael Brown. His family needed help and Dr Baden asked me to help. I do not regret that one bit at all. So make your judgement about the story, be it for me or for your skepticism, but know that I know the truth along with some close colleagues and friends. Until you know the facts as I do, dont judge. Oh and I have two Board Certified Forensic Pathologists who work with me, stand by me, defend me, and know that I do a great professional job.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 23:38:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015