through family record. any history of any dentist whatsoever? ask them if they ve had ever had sinus films, if they had a bad sinus infection. her goal is to complete the ten fire autopsies that same day, no matter how long it takes, so they can release the bodies to the families for funerals. here s where you want to write it, kyra, see there? like that. dr. corey reaches her conclusion. she finds soot in the airway of the fire victims, which means there was no foul play. they all were alive when the fire broke out. later, a fire investigation determines the official cause a cigarette left burning near a couch. but the family says no one was smoking. through dedication and teamwork, dr. corey and her colleagues accomplish their goal. they finish all the fire autopsies before evening, enabling the families to recover the bodies of their loved ones quickly.
bit more focused. the case hits home for dr. ralston. he s the father of two. one of them the same age as the victim. bloody fluid is present within the left chest space. i know what my 3-year-old can and can t do and her emotional reactions and her response to pain and fright. and so it obviously brings it a little bit closer to home in terms of what may have this child s final moments may have been. still, he maintains his professional composure. he has a job to do and a duty to the victim s family and to the investigators. we re doing a service to a number of people by telling them the final story. then beyond that, it makes you just appreciate life. because you realize how fragile we truly are. in this case, the autopsy
exactly happened in those terrible final minutes in that house. first the victims are sketched and photographed to show their position and location. then they re removed from the house. while she s working, dr. corey notices a distraught man hurrying toward the charred remains at the house. he just learned that his 2-year-old twins died in the fire. dr. corey moves to stop him, to convince him to stay away. my goal at that point was to get in between him and the house. because i didn t want him to see his loved ones there in the house. that wouldn t do him any good. it wouldn t do the investigators any good. and it would only probably increase his shock and grief at that point. after dr. corey s assurances, he agrees to back away. i promised him that i would take good care of them, that i was a mother myself. it s the toughest, most unscientific part of her job. dealing with families.
a tragedy in the span of only five minutes. any unexpected death such as that of a healthy child is investigated by authorities. the toddler is brought to the kentucky medical examiner s office. deputy medical examiner dr. bill ralston will perform the autopsy. once we ve done that, then we begin with the interior. a forensic pathologist with five years of experience, he s the only man among the five medical examiners in this office. he needs to determine the cause of death. autopsies won t show whether a victim was pushed into the water or fell in. but it s standard practice to look for signs of foul play that may have occurred before the victim was found in the water. ready? the working diagnosis was drowning. there are no real tests for drowning. i can t send blood to the lab
unique to him. normally they re real smooth. but all these little overgrowths, they would show up on x-ray. yeah. there s a disk that normally goes in there. but these connect. so that would show up on x-ray. if he s got them, that will be key. it s a man on the driver s license has the name abnormalities, dr. craig may be one step closer to an identification. old medical records could provide the answer. this one s broken. and the rest of these, these are just that s simply chewed. she also examines closely this critical piece of evidence. the skull. there s a hairline fracture between the eyes, one across the nose, and a hole in the cheek. in the field dr. craig saw the possibility of foul play. but in the cold light of the lab i just don t think that s a fresh fracture. i see signs of healing around the top. he s got a nose fracture that shows signs of healing also.