Amazing comment in Boise, Idaho
The following comment was posted on the Idaho Statesman's Web site in response to a "Saving Babies" project story about infanticide.Wake Up GuysSubmitted by buckshot on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 8:20am.I don't want to disclose too much about my identity, but I have spent 15 yrs in law enforcement in Idaho. The second day on the job, w/o any training I was sworn in as a "Deputy Coroner" and told I had the State Authority to pronounce people deceased. To this day I was never given any training on what I should do when responding to an unattended death. The elected Coroner at that time had been a school bus driver in his prior employment. I know what I am speaking about here. Many unattended deaths, both adult and juvenile, in Idaho do not get any investigation by anyone with experience in the field of death investigation. The Coroner hardly ever responds to the death scene. The common practice is they inspect the body once it arrives at the Funeral Home. Many States, if not most States, require all unattended deaths be given an autopsy. Idaho does not. I have seen healthy people under the age of 50 that had not been sick or seen by a doctor in months pronounced dead and never given an autopsy. Most County and rural agencies operate on a very small budget and use that as an excuse for not doing autopsies. There are no "Doctor Boddens" in Idaho. There are probably less than 4 certified Forensic Pathologists with any experience in homicide investigations in the entire State. When a Deputy Sheriff, who makes less than $25k a year in most cases, investigates a death scene about all that he can see is bullet holes or stab wounds. Anything more needs to be discovered in a lab setting by a trained professional. I'm running long here, so just understand and wake up about how things happen or don't happen due to the amount of money that is available, not by what is needed.
Not all agree
The following letter-to-the-editor was published by The Columbus Dispatch on December 30 in reaction to the newspaper's publication of Scripps Howard's finding that a small, but growing number of coroners have found that most sudden infant deaths in their areas were the resultof accidental asphyxia because parents co-sleep with their infants or becuase these children were placed in unsafe sleeping conditions like a sofa or adult bed.Article on SIDS conflicts with experienceAfter reviewing the Scripps Howard News Service article "Suffocation, not SIDS, often behind deaths" in the Dec. 18 Dispatch, I am filled with regret that it was ever published. In the first place, the conclusions quoted from the several coroners do not agree with my observations and conclusions during some 60 years as a pediatrician and a pediatric pathologist with a special interest in sudden infant death syndrome. Certainly, some cases of sleep-related deaths of infants are due to parents rolling over on babies and the like, but nowhere near the 72 percent quoted in the article. As a member of two county deceased-child review teams, I can see clearly the tendency for coroners and various nonmedical members of the teams to designate many cases as asphyxiation when there is bed-sharing or a soft pillow nearby, even when there is no clear history of smothering or findings at autopsy to support such a diagnosis. I consider these distortions of data. These cases should be reviewed, in my opinion, by a team of pediatric pathologists. Aside from scientific concern, I have great concern that this article may have a devastating, depressing effect on parents who have lost an infant to SIDS.This article was listed under "Breaking News," but should be under "Broken News."DR. CHARLES B. REINER Delaware
Idaho's Infant Death Investigations
I appreciate your comments...several years ago, State Rep Bonnie Douglas tried to introduce legislation that mandate infant death scene standards. She was faced with much opposition and ammended her bill to prohibited the certification of SIDS deaths without an autopsy, scene investigation and complete medical history. The coroners rallied and villified Rep Douglas (who was also a SIDS parent) she was really raked over the coals for doing so and trying to improve the manner in which sudden unexplained pediatric deaths were investigated. She since was defeated and no longer sits in the House. However, we met on several occasions as Washington State had just passed some legislation on standards for scene investigations and I was amazed how different the death investigation climate was in Idaho! A police officer friend of mine here in Western Washington who helped us film a training DVD for first responders, worked as a medicolegal death investigator in Idaho. He clashed with your state coroner on several issues, ended up moving to Washington where he worked as a death investigator prior to his entering law enforcement. He shared some very troubling incidents that occured in Idaho. First I think you need an atmosphere where people want to do a better job, then they need to make sure they are fiscally sound to do so