Springboard #4: No one is blind.
Jim Fixx, the guy who wrote “The Complete Book of Running” and lectured about how a healthy diet and running would promote longevity dropped dead of a massive coronary while running along a rural state road in Vermont at the ripe old age of 52. The autopsy reveled that he had 3 massively blocked heart arteries. Before you give up your morning jog and have that chocolate chip cheese cake for lunch you have to consider Fixx came from a family where the men had poor health histories. His father suffered a heart attack at the age of 35 and died of one at 42. Genetics tells us now that Fixx was probably running a just a few steps ahead of the Grim Reaper for years.
The point is that the field of forensic pathology isn’t always…pardon the pun… cut and dry. Not every body arrives at the morgue with a family history documented in minute detail between the covers of popular magazines like “Saturday Review” and “Playboy”. Some show up with just a name on a toetag. It’s my job to find the answers…no matter if they are health-guru trendsetters or nameless faces.
I try to do that job. Sometimes it’s not that easy.
I’d like to say there isn’t preferential treatment, but I’d be lying. There are cases that are bumped ahead in the system…or more likely bypassed. Nine times of ten, the reason has to do with power and/or money.
Is it right? Ten years ago I would have said absolutely NO. There are those unfortunates that deserve a bigger voice then others. Now, I believe that in death, we’re all pretty much on the same footing as we were the day were born. We’re naked, helpless, and in need of someone to take care of us. We all deserve the same amount of respect…and that sometimes includes finding those answers. Irregardless of anything we had...or didn't...in life.
That’s why I’m in the answer business.
The point is that the field of forensic pathology isn’t always…pardon the pun… cut and dry. Not every body arrives at the morgue with a family history documented in minute detail between the covers of popular magazines like “Saturday Review” and “Playboy”. Some show up with just a name on a toetag. It’s my job to find the answers…no matter if they are health-guru trendsetters or nameless faces.
I try to do that job. Sometimes it’s not that easy.
I’d like to say there isn’t preferential treatment, but I’d be lying. There are cases that are bumped ahead in the system…or more likely bypassed. Nine times of ten, the reason has to do with power and/or money.
Is it right? Ten years ago I would have said absolutely NO. There are those unfortunates that deserve a bigger voice then others. Now, I believe that in death, we’re all pretty much on the same footing as we were the day were born. We’re naked, helpless, and in need of someone to take care of us. We all deserve the same amount of respect…and that sometimes includes finding those answers. Irregardless of anything we had...or didn't...in life.
That’s why I’m in the answer business.