I’m specifically recalling a case where a local mom woke up to find her 10 year old son dead. Perfectly healthy and just died in his sleep. 6 months later it was determined he died of an aneurysm. Did they just not suspect foul play? Would the autopsy have happened quicker if they had? Does the autopsy itself take a long time or is it a paperwork/political thing?
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Different parts of an autopsy take different amounts of time. And autopsies generally aren’t that time sensitivity so some of the processes are “batched” to save cost (which is required as autopsies aren’t reimbursed well, and if it’s a coroner/medical examiner office case is performed in an underfunded environment).
Some parts that can be delayed/batched include the toxicology part (firing up that instrument is expensive), the histology part (processing pieces of tissue for microscopic examination), and brain examination (brain has to be fixed for a week a more before it can be dissected, and this is usually performed by a specialist who may only dissect the brains on a scheduled basis, like once or twice a month).
So in the case of a brain aneurysm, it may be known that there was a bleed in the brain within a few day, but it would be another week for the brain to fix, and maybe another few weeks before the expert dissects the brain, and another week for the tissue to be processed, and another few weeks for the expert to review the slides. The goal is typically to complete a case including a brain examination within 60 days for this reason.
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