英语学习：AMUSE YOURSELF WITH ENGLISH READING

Bob was charged with homicide.  Case closed?  Not at all.  During the autopsy on Linda, the medical examiner found at the base of her brain a ruptured aneurysm (35), a rare defect which usually gives no warning until it bursts, frequently causing sudden death.  Bob’s slap probably didn’t cause it to rupture.  It was more likely an accident of nature, incredibly timed.  Charges against Bob were therefore dropped.

Another important aspect of a medical examiner’s work is identification of bodies – especially when they have become decomposed or skeletonized (36).  Dental records, X-rays, even the size and shape of bones, can be of help in this painstaking process.

An expert in skeletonized remains, such as Jean-Pierre Lahary of the New York City medical examiner’s office, can tell the sex, age, height and weight of a victim from as little as a single bone.  “Ribs, sinus cavities (37), eye sockets can be as individual as finger prints,” says Lahary.

But medical examiners’ responsibilities are much broader than identifying bodies and solving crimes.  They also act as monitors of the quality of health care in their communities.

We are watchdogs of the quality of life in this community, says Dr. Thomas Noguchi, chief medical examiner in Los Angeles.  Many of the environmental, health and safety problems threatening the residents of Los Angeles first surface (38) in Dr. Noguchi’s office.

For example, in 1972 his investigators became suspicious about the ways old people were dying in several local nursing homes.  They were drowning in bathtubs, choking on food, being scalded (39) to death in showers: two or three such deaths were coming in every week.

The medical examiner began holding inquests, and nursing-home staffers had to bare their practice publicly.  Horror stories emerged: the nurse who forced food down the throat of a patient who had to be fed through a stomach tube, choking her to death; the aide who gave stew to a patient on a liquid diet and was unable to save her from strangling (40).

Several nursing homes lost their licenses, a few were criminally prosecuted, others began policing (41) themselves.

Thus, while the medical examiner’s work is grim(42), the rewards are great.  “There’s nothing to compare to the satisfaction of contributing to the well-being of the community,” says Dr. Charles Petty, chief medical examiner in Dallas.  “Our work is for the living, not the dead.”

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