Deaths From Overdose Add To The Plaguing Problems Medical Examiner, Coroner Offices Have

The skyrocketing number of deaths due to overdose are adding to worries that have been plaguing medical examiner and coroner offices. This results in a shortage of places to keep bodies, and causes a tremendous amount of delay in autopsies and toxicology testing.

The Boston Globe reported that several States have been having problems regarding the dramatic increase of deaths due to overdose. In Connecticut, the medical examiner's office has already considered renting a refrigerated truck where they can store bodies because their normal freezer is almost occupied at times. In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County ME's office sometimes has to sometimes put dead bodies on Army-style cots in their freezer because the office runs out of gurneys. The coroner's office in Hamilton County, Cincinnati is experiencing a 100-day backlog of DNA testing for police drug investigations, mainly because of the rise in overdose deaths.

According to medical examiners and coroners, overdose deaths are adding to cause more stress on their offices which already has issues like a significant increase in urban violence, inadequate facilities, budget problems and the shortage of forensic pathologists qualified to perform autopsies.

"There are many, many parts of the country that have substantial problems," said Dr. David Fowler, Maryland's chief medical examiner and president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, referring to medical examiner and coroner offices. "I think the drug overdoses have substantially increased the problems," NBC News reported.

There were 47,055 people whose causes of death were drug overdose in the United States in 2014. According to bigstory.ap.org, the latest numbers came from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It showed that there was an increase of 7 percent from 2013, prompted by significant increases in deaths from heroin and opioid painkiller. There are also reported saying that the number of deaths from overdose continue to rise.

Forensic science groups said that there should be at least 1,000 forensic pathologists for all these cases to be catered, however, right now, there are only about 500 found in the country. A major cause of the shortage is that many medical students are opting for higher-paying jobs in regular pathology jobs in hospitals, Fowler said.

Medical examiner and coroner offices typically investigate violent deaths in their jurisdictions. They also are responsible in investigating suspicious and unexpected death that didn't happen in hospitals. Medical examiners said that the most evident changes resulting from overwhelmed offices have been the time families have to wait to learn their loved ones cause of death, and delays in criminal investigation.

Kathleen Errico, a mom from Haverhill, Massachusetts, lost her daughter, Kelsey Grace Endicott, to a suspected heroin overdose in April. Kelsey was 23 and left behind a toddler son. Errico said that authorities told her that due to the large backlog at the state medical examiner's office, it would take four to six months to complete a toxicology report.

"It's lousy for the families," Errico said. "I know some other folks that are very, very angry. They're very upset about the wait. ... But I don't really see what more you can do with so many overdoses happening so quickly."

Some medical examiner and coroner offices, including the one in Connecticut, are so overworked that they risk losing accreditation, because their pathologists are on track to perform more than 325 autopsies a year, which is the limit set by the National Association of Medical Examiners' accrediting program.