[ Silence ]
>> Melissa Brassell: [Background talking] This was --
this gentleman committed suicide by actually inserting a --
probably with some force a meat thermometer through the skull into the brain,
so when he arrived at the medical examiner's office there was --
still the meat thermometer was in place.
My name's Melissa Brassell.
I am Assistant Medical Examiner at the Office
of the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Maryland.
In a homicide we look for things, like you said, bruising, abrasions.
Where are they located?
What could have caused them?
Gunshot wounds, stab wounds, and telling the difference between entrance
and exit gunshot wounds, trying to determine what type
of a knife may have caused a stab wound, things of that nature.
This area is a place where detectives, attorneys, whoever is here to observe an autopsy
or give additional information, get the autopsy results, will observe the autopsy from up here.
[ Silence ]
So each of these rooms has eight stations, so we can do eight autopsies in each room.
One of my major duties here at the Medical Examiner's Office is to perform autopsies
and to investigate deaths, particularly deaths that occur suddenly or unexpectedly.
So on any given day I'll either be doing -- actually performing autopsies or doing all
of the things that go along with performing autopsies, so speaking with family,
speaking with detectives, doing paperwork, writing reports,
looking at lab results, medical records.
In some cases they require photos be taken, so we start off with that.
So we document everything externally, take photos, take evidence for the police
if they require that, make sure that that's all documented, and then we will move
to the internal part of the autopsy, so the body's actually opened,
and we look inside for any injuries or disease.
And then we take all of that together to form our opinions about cause and manner of death
and write the written report, autopsy report.
>> We've all seen the television shows, and I'd be remiss if I didn't ask how they compare to --
to the actual job and what you're -- what you're doing.
>> Melissa Brassell: They're not very realistic at all [chuckle].
I won't say that I don't enjoy the television shows [laughter] as well,
but they don't really portray my job.
They like to show medical examiners always going to the scene, and some --
in some states and jurisdictions medical examiners do go to the scene.
I do not often go to a scene unless there's something of special concern about a case
that they want a medical examiner at the scene to look at.
We don't do it all that frequently anymore.
So I'm not going to the scene a lot.
And they show the medical examiner going to the scene and giving a time
of death pretty much immediately when they get there,
and that's one of the biggest inaccuracies.
We can't often give even a reasonable estimate of the time of death,
so in that sense television is doing a bit of disservice to the legal world
in death investigation [laughter].
What I like about it is -- and the reason I wanted to go into it in the first place is
that I've always been interested in kind of the crime-solving aspect of --
of the job, and that's what really drew me to it.
So not only did I really like anatomy, because you --
you have to have an interest in medicine...
>> Hmm-mm.
>> ...and -- and anatomy to go through all that schooling, but the crime-solving aspect,
being able to get kind of background information on cases that the general public doesn't get
to hear about, to testify in court, to be involved with the crime lab technicians,
the state's attorneys, like that whole process.
Just the idea of helping and also having specific, real detailed knowledge
about what was happening surrounding a case I think is what really drew me to it.
People like to say, "Well, you must like it because your patients can't talk
to you," which is something I hear a lot.
But in fact when you have a death the family is there to deal with that, and they want answers
to why the person died and anything that you can --
any information that you can give them will help with their closure,
and so we're on the phone with families a lot.
Sometimes when we have to testify in court we are --
you know the attorneys do their best to try to schedule us appropriately and tell us
when to be there, but you know they have a hard time.
They're -- it's very unpredictable, so there are many times we will just be sitting outside the
court room for hours, all day.
Then they go to lunch; then they take a break; and then we'll get to you.
Sure, there have been cases that the manner has been undetermined or even the cause
of death may be undetermined, and you know you just can't find anything...
>> Hmm-mm.
>> ...and that's just how it is sometimes.
You have to be able to compartmentalize.
I mean, we see a lot of things in this job, and you can't take it home with you.
And you can't perseverate over everything that you see
because we see horrible things every day while we're here.
With television forensic sciences are such a part of our culture now everyone's
so much more aware of -- of the job descriptions.
I actually teach a couple of times a year in two high schools;
they have year-long courses on forensic science.
So the information is really out there now at this point, so for young people
that think they maybe want to maybe be a medical examiner or pathologist the key is
to get good grades in school, though I can testify to the fact
that if you don't you can always eventually get to the point you want to be with some hard work.
So get good grades.
It doesn't so much matter what you major in in college.
Medical schools are looking for well-rounded individuals,
so as long as you can show you have a good grade point average and you've experienced a lot
of different things, volunteering -- just really getting out there and seeing as much as you can,
that's what the medical schools, I think, are looking for right now.
My background is in anatomic pathology, but my fellowship training was in forensic pathology.
So what that specialty is is specific training in injury patterns,
so in any death I've been trained to look at the injuries and get a sense
of what may have caused them, what they might be due to.
When I finally realized to be a medical examiner I have to go to medical school I had to --
I enrolled in a Master's program, amd so I did a Master's --
Master's of Science degree in Anatomy and Cell Biology
and brought my grade point average up that way.
So [laughter] I did my Master's program at the school --
medical school where I ended up going to school for medicine.
So that did a couple of things for me, allowed me to bring my grades up and get to know some
of the people at the medical school [laughter] so I'd have a better chance of getting in.
Kind of getting some contacts in medical examiners' offices, crime labs,
whatever field you're thinking of going into.
I mean, just call them up, say, "Hey, I'm interested in maybe doing this.
Is there anyone there that can maybe talk to me?"
I mean, I have family, friends of friends that know a college student that might want
to do what I do, so I get calls all the time like that.
And I'm happy to always, you know, speak with anyone that needs advice.
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