r/ForensicPathology

hello, i first wanna start off by saying please give me grace, i have been trying to figure this all out on my own and those around me and my school has unfortunately been no help. im a little unsure of what i want to do, i'll explain what i was hoping to achieve with my career. i want to be able to conduct autopsies and work in labs to determine the cause of death in sudden, unexpected, or suspicious deaths. i initially was working towards becoming an a forensics pathologist assistant/autopsy, but i was just informed of other career options such as medical examiner, medicolegal death investigator, coroner, and autopsy technicians. just based on the research ive done its very hard to distinguish the difference between all careers. im based in california and i had no plans to attend medical school as i was told it wasn't needed for the intial career choices i picked but upon further research, it mentions i would need residency as well? im wondering if there's a career path that'll allow me to legally dissect bodies and conduct labs on the cause of death without going to school for 10 million years. if that's the only way then so be it, i will commit myself but i wanted advice from others in the field. my school does not offer any forensic science degrees so im majoring in biology and minoring in criminal justice studies. (im in my undergrad)

some of things i enjoy doing are conducting labs, dissections, and using detective skills, however i have considered becoming a forensic scientist if the initial pathways are too long. is it possible to get any advice? as of now im in the process of finding volunteer opportunities within the medical examiner's offices near me, including LLU for their forensic pathologist assistant program. please help! it's very frustrating feeling this lost without any guidance. thank you so much in advance. feel free to ask any questions for clarification

Hi all, I appreciate your time with this. I will try to keep it brief

Sadly we lost a loved one this week. They were 31 and was found at their residence. I have no other details to offer other than that the death cause is pending.
Only hours earlier we had communication as normal.
We live in separate cities, but I know they were always healthy, living, happy, working, doing their thing. Busy, growing, finding themselves in this world. You know the norm. And just like that it was over.

As self explanatory as “pending” is, would that mean the way they appeared as they were found didn’t give off any obvious reasons or causes? And for this reason, would a full autopsy have been conducted? Or could they know what the cause of death was and still be marked as pending? Is it true that it can take months for the cause of death to be revealed? And what specifically is tested in these situations? Would the body be released for funeral preparations while pending? Or do they hold the body until the cause of death is finalised?

It’s so difficult to process the reality that they’re no longer with us and not having any answers makes it feel almost unreal.
The “pending” makes me feel as though we are waiting for a prognosis and they will be fine. It’s so strange. I’ve dealt with death and grief before but have never lost a loved one with no answers. Hence why this feels like “wait, they might actually be ok!”

Any insight I would really appreciate, it’s my first time posting here

Edit - just to add I don’t have a time frame in which they were found - but matter of hours to a day. This I don’t know

Hello everyone. I'm a student in the Dominican Republic finishing up my internship. I haven't started my residency yet but I would ultimately like to be a medical examiner in the US. Does anyone have any insight on how to best make this possible? Would it be a better option to become a Forensic Doctor here in the DR first and then transferring over? Any bit of insight would be appreciated as I am having a hard time finding information for my specific information. Thank you.

A friend passed away last year. The cause of death was listed on the coroner's report as: dehydration. There were no other details.

For sake of simplicity and privacy, we'll say that the date of discovery of death was Feb 4th. The police report indicated that the death may have occurred between Feb 1 at 00:00 and Feb 4th at 10:15am.

Female, late thirties. Hotel room. From what I understand she was in fairly decent health.

Can someone help me better understand what could mean? I don't believe that she simply hadn't been having enough water. I guess my two fears were alcohol poisoning or some sort of drug overdose.

I guess one final question: is dehydration used as a catch-all that when things are unclear but no foul play is suspected, or as a delicate way of protecting someone's legacy?

Thank you in advance for your kindness, empathy, and knowledge.

Update:

It seems like the medical examiner's report is what is necessary to better understand things. I will not be requesting that. I don't care to go down that road as I don't believe it would be helpful for me personally. I might change my mind at some later point, we'll see.

Knowing a bit more about some tangential details that I have not revealed (e.g. how the obit was written, and how the celebration of life was conducted), it seems whatever happened would fall into what those who speak Commonwealth English would call "death by misadventure."

Thank you very much to those who replied.

I'm really interested in pursuing an investigative career. I have a lot of questions, and if anyone has free time to answer some them, it would be greatly appreciated.

What kind of person ends up loving this job long-term?

What skills matter more than people think?

What part of the job did you not expect to dislike?

What burns people out the fastest?

What types of personalities don’t last in this field?

Have you ever felt bored doing this?

How much autonomy do you have in deciding how to approach a case?

Do you ever feel like you’re uncovering something meaningful?

What kinds of cases require the most critical thinking?

How often are you actually solving something vs just gathering information?

What percentage of your work feels repetitive or procedural?

When was the last time you had to really think your way through a case?

Do you feel like your brain is being used fully in this job?

What did you do yesterday, hour by hour?

How much time is spent on autopsies vs research vs writing reports vs. court?

How much of the job is paperwork?

Do you feel fulfilled by your career?

Was medical school, residency, and fellowship worth it?

Hello friends and neighbors. We need to demand a better system when it comes to the Idaho death investigation statute. Currently, every one of Idaho's 44 counties elects a county coroner. Their experience ranges from being the town barber to being Certified Medicolegal death investigators, but the current law is not specific as to qualifications and has no teeth in requiring them to be trained or any consequences for non compliance. It is the equivalent of electing a sheriff who never worked in law enforcement.

There are a few that are consummate professionals. There are a few who are working hard to change the system. There are a few who are classic Dunning Kruger effect cases of not knowing how much they don't know, and some that willfully resist any attempt to modernize.

Currently Ada county is the only office in the state that has Staff forensic pathologists able to perform autopsies. Nowhere else in the state has the facilities to do this, though it is desperately needed, in East Idaho especially. A 10 hr round trip to have a doctor examine a victim of homicide is absolutely unacceptable.

This is a service none of us ever want to have to have any contact with, but when homicide, suicide, accidents, and unattended deaths occur in our communities, these cases cannot be left to people that are not trained to investigate them. Key signs are missed. Murderers walk free. Public health infrastructure is harmed by inaccurate cause of death data.

Coroners are signing out death certificates without basic medical training, especially in small counties where they have held the office for years and nobody runs against them. When it takes a two day turnaround and long trip to get an autopsy in Boise, they err on the side of signing out a case based on medical records or talking to the family. Literally the purpose of a coroner or medical examiner is to hold the medical system, law enforcement, and the community at large accountable, to make sure people don't slip through the cracks in the system and to identify the cases where they do. Because of all these challenges, Idaho has an abysmal autopsy rate, and we are likely missing vital information.

In states with medical examiner systems, it is a board certified forensic pathologist acting as a chief medical examiner that oversees this vital public health service, not any random individual that can win a popularity based election. This is not an office that should have anything to do with party politics. Politics have no place in what should be a separate, unbiased investigation process that does not turn in any way based on party demands or rhetoric.

For your local coroner election, I implore you to ignore the R and the D and read up on weather your candidates meet even the most basic requirements of this job.

In the long term I hope we can see Idaho adopt a state level medical examiner system that standardizes the expectations for death investigation across all counties, no more 44 different systems with 44 ways of doing things.

Hi All,

My partner is pursuing pathology and has started performing Post-mortem duties. As these have a legal angle to them, as to how they are performed, and the case details can be requested from my partner even after years; I was looking for a way for her to document these cases. If anyone has a way to do so, any app or tool made specially for this, then it would be great.

Thanks in advance

Trigger warning possible suicide?

12 years ago I lost my mom. I was 20. she was addicted to alcohol and cough syrup (dxm)

Recently I found a lump on my right breast. I’m getting screened for breast cancer. In doing so my doctor needed more information on my mom if she was BRCA positive ( cancer gene mutation)

I got a copy of her medical records from the cancer treatment center. 5 days before her death she went Into the doctor. He vitals were fine, heart sounds were good and lung sounds as well.

This tripped me up. Surely if she had died from Congestive heart failure ( what I was told) her numbers would be off.

Well I ended up requesting her autopsy from the state because things weren’t adding up.

I specifically wanted to see her toxicology report.

I got It back. She was positive for alcohol and had almost 10 times above the normal of DXM in her system. According to chat gpt there 2-2.5 bottles of cough syrup. I also know she had at least 3+ beers in her system (she was 5ft 10 and 128lbs) I also read that her peak amount of dxm was probably closer to 1.5

On her autopsy It is listed as chf but there’s notes stating that the addiction was a part of It.

So. Given all of that. Is that a crazy amount of cough syrup to consume in one sitting?

If you are addicted to It is It something you sip on? Or chug.

I’m convinced she killed herself at this point. Or accidentally did whatever.

I just am trying to understand I guess what her final hours may have been. And if getting to that point was intentional or just routine.

Hello,

I am a hopeful future Forensic Pathologist. It is the only real career I've wanted to pursue my whole life.

I am only in high school right now (4.0 GPA, trying to set myself up for a future bio degree at a nice uni), so I was wondering if there are any good resources for learning about forensic pathology in general.

I like to do research in my free time, but it's been kind of hard to find specific resources on forensic pathology. I'd also like to learn more about the technical side of the job (how to loosely interpret toxicology, the examination process, etc), which is hard to find online (most resources are descriptions of the job and how to get there).

Any recommendations (books, articles, websites, videos, documentaries, etc) would be greatly appreciated. 😄

Hello!

I am a paramedic who is applying to Med school (pathology) and currently taking pre-req courses to apply to Mc Pathology Assistant in the meantime.

I have my first Medical Examiners Shadow next week and going to be in the Autopsy Suite.

Any advice? What should I review before going so if they ask questions I don’t look like a fool? What should I be worried about or prepare to see?

I am very excited for the day!

Can someone tell me about forensics as a subspecialty as in what the job entails, work life balance, salary, job posts etc

Hi! I would like to ask what are the best forensic science related courses/ uni for forensic related subjects? I was not able to find a lot of informations on uni major courses on forensic and I am really looking into working in the field. (I like dissection/ lab/ pathology) I am also not sure about what I should write in my personal statement and essay…

After now dropping my anatomy course & rescheduling when I’m going to retake this class I have been thinking if I am even qualified to transfer to my two options regarding university or even if i meet the requirements. I am considering UCLA and Cal State LA. My gpa is a 3.705 at the moment. Besides my W in anatomy all my grades are passing. All A’s and B’s. I plan on passing anatomy with an A as I am beginning to study now up until I retake the course. However I am the first in my family to take college & university seriously so I’m pretty lost.

I feel like my counselor is no help and often ignores my messages. I am taking courses like two Biology courses, two chem courses, admn Justice, one anatomy course & statistics. My counselor advised me to take my other remaining courses when I transfer however I feel like I’m missing something? Of course I am taking my general courses but is there anything else that I need to know to get accepted into a university? Especially the route I want to take?

Hi everyone. I’m 17 from Texas and I’ve wanted to become a forensic pathologist since I was around 7 years old. This is genuinely my dream career, and I’m finally trying to seriously start pursuing it. I graduated high school early at 15 with a 3.6 GPA. After that, I took a gap year because honestly I felt overwhelmed and didn’t have much support from my parents at the time. Recently they’ve become more supportive, so now I’m trying to get back on track. Right now I’m taking medical billing classes and working toward that certification while figuring out my next steps.
The problem is that I’m really anxious and confused about where to begin. I know forensic pathology requires a very long path through college, medical school, residency, etc., but I would really appreciate advice from people actually in the field.

What steps should I take next starting from where I am now?
What major would you recommend in college?
Is there anything you wish you knew before entering pathology or forensic pathology?
And realistically, what should someone my age focus on first?
What books, shows, documentaries, anatomy kits/models, flashcards, apps, YouTube channels, or other study tools do y’all recommend that I can start using now?

Also, please be as specific as possible with recommendations because I have ADHD and I struggle a lot with vague advice or trying to figure things out without details 😭 Specific names of resources or study methods would seriously help me so much.
Thank you guys for reading. This career means a lot to me, and posting this is honestly my first real step toward the goal!

I’m researching a 1993 death investigation involving a suspected hit-and-run in Maryland and am trying to better understand the forensic/pathology side of older cases from that era.

Without speculating on guilt or identity, I’m hoping professionals here may be able to clarify a few things:

- In the early 1990s, what evidence would typically be collected in a suspected fatal hit-and-run?

- Would tissue, photographs, slides, toxicology, or trace evidence commonly still exist today?

- If records or evidence were later destroyed according to retention schedules, would documentation of that destruction normally remain?

- How often were cases initially classified one way and later reconsidered?

I’m trying to understand procedure and investigative limitations from that time period, not accuse anyone. Any professional insight or direction toward resources would be greatly appreciated.

This is a bit disturbing, I apologize.

My sister was morbidly obese when she died and I’m only mentioning it because of why she died and I’m not sure if it could have had any part in the way her body changed after death.

She died at my mother’s home while in bed 2 or 3 days after weight loss surgery. Congestive heart failure. I believe she suffocated in her own fluids. There was fluid that came out of her mouth all over the pillow.

I saw photos of her. Her face was dark purple and very swollen. She had purple on her chest too and was laying on her side.

They said she died around 5:30 pm that night. It took around 2 or 3 hours for her body to be picked up. The photos were taken in that timeframe.

My mother is convinced she died the day before and she didn’t check on her until that evening. My mother is not mentally sound and should not have been looking after her but I digress.

From the way her body looked, is anyone able to tell me if she was really only dead for a few hours or over 24 hours?

She didn’t reply to a text message I sent her the morning before that and I’ve always thought that was odd.

My mother took these photos and like I said she is NOT mentally well. Unfortunately I stumbled across the photos on her phone while looking for some other ones.