Cuts Like A Knife
Published July 2004 in
Razor
Magazine
“Autopsy” origin: “autopsia: seeing with one's own eyes”
"The muscles on the chest have been separated from the ribs. Next, the ribs are cut on each side of the sternum to access the chest area.” A high-pitched whine overwhelms the stale, disinfectant-filled air as the pneumatic reciprocating saw bites into the bare bone, illuminated by the bright, uninterrupted lights of the room. It hesitates only for a moment before cutting into the rib, sending small bits of bone and residual blood into the air and onto the medical examiner's faceplate. After wiping the visor clean, he finishes cutting the ribs on each side of the chest, removes the chest plate and continues dictation.
While similar scenes have played out on popular TV shows, like CSI and Crossing Jordan, reality is a world apart from the fiction that seen on television. In real life, autopsy rooms look less like labs and more like butcher shop with blood on the tables, tools, and floor. The rooms on television are sterile, with little blood or other bodily fluids in view. The tools are flashy, immaculate. TV medical examiners work effortlessly with no time constraints. They make science look sexy. Viewers only get a hint of the cold and messy reality of the morgue. They see what they want to see. A little blood? No problem. Guts? Occasionally. Realism? Well...that depends.
Yet, it is in this same room that the truth is often laid bare through the application of both science and skill. What the medical examiner finds on the cold metal table can tell the story of not only a person's death, but also their entire life.