Author – The Durango Herald

What are limits when ruling on cause of death?

In March, a superior court judge in New Hampshire barred the state’s chief medical examiner from testifying that the death of an 8-month-old boy was a homicide. As reported by The...

DATE: Nov 9, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Being coroner doesn’t mute pain of personal loss

Death catches some people unawares. Others, like my Grandpa Reuben, see it coming. As the only child of two only children, I was unusually close to my grandparents. I followed Gra...

DATE: Oct 12, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Coroner correct to rule Brady death a homicide

James Brady, press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, died last month at 73. A Virginia medical examiner certified his death a homicide – a consequence of the gunshot wound to...

DATE: Sep 7, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Our definition of death is subject to change

I was a medical student when I first saw someone die. A middle-aged woman lay in the intensive-care unit surrounded by machinery that recorded her heartbeat, measured her blood pr...

DATE: Aug 9, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Beyond the gore, autopsies hold lessons for us

It should be no surprise that most people, even most doctors in training, think autopsies are gory. The surprise to me is quite a few of my colleagues take offense when somebody says so. ...

DATE: Jul 13, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Death in the waiting room: Is it homicide?

John Verrier, a 30-year-old man who went to a Bronx, New York, hospital emergency room because of a skin rash, waited more than eight hours to see a doctor. A security guard found him “stiff...

DATE: Jun 8, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

How to handle allegations of poisoning?

“Oh dear, oh dear ... our Dad is dead Yesterday, the will was read. Stepmother Jane got all the dough None of us liked her much, you know. Even th...

DATE: May 11, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Neurochemistry shapes the tragic trajectory of a life

Nicole Leigh Redhorse was only 34 years old, and her 2007 death was a tragedy with elements of sex, murder and betrayal. Nicole was young, beautiful, brilliant, beloved and an alcoholic. ...

DATE: Apr 13, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Drug addicts risk death every time they use

Philip Seymour Hoffman, described in The New York Times as “perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation,” died in a Greenwich Village apartment on Feb. 2 w...

DATE: Mar 9, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

When sports kill, is it an accident or something else?

Richard Nieuwenhuizen, a 41-year-old volunteer linesman officiating at an amateur soccer game in the Netherlands, died in December 2012 after he was allegedly kicked in the head, neck and bo...

DATE: Feb 8, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Doctors cheating on board exams? I don’t think so

CNN has reported doctors taking the examinations required for board certification in their specialties have been cheating on those tests for years. If they’re right about what constitutes ch...

DATE: Jan 12, 2014 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

When a sudden lift in mood isn’t a positive sign

Years ago, when my friend Franz Kriwanek killed himself, I felt not only grief and loss but a great sense of failure. Franz was an artist and an accomplished potter. Born in Austr...

DATE: Dec 8, 2013 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report