The visiting medical examiner who performs autopsies in Durango says that before continuing to serve La Plata County after the November election, he would have to build rapport with anyone other than incumbent Jann Smith.
It’s critical to establish trust and confidence in a coroner who isn’t a forensic pathologist because that person becomes his eyes and ears in investigating an unattended death, Dr. Rob Kurtzman said in a telephone interview.
Kurtzman has worked with Smith since November 2012 when she was appointed coroner when Dr. Carol Huser, a forensic pathologist, retired. Kurtzman said he is comfortable with Smith because of her background in law enforcement and emergency medical training.
Smith is being challenged in November by Beverly Begay, who has decades of similar experience in New Mexico and Texas.
A coroner investigates unattended or suspicious deaths but doesn’t do autopsies, the purview of forensic pathologists such as Kurtzman and Huser.
In Colorado, a coroner need only be 18 years old or older, meet residency requirements, have no felony convictions and take a week’s worth of classes studying death investigations.
Kurtzman said his caution in taking on autopsies in Durango exists whether or not he is elected coroner in Mesa County in November. He is running against a former colleague and current Mesa County Coroner Dr. Dean Havlik, who succeeded him.
Kurtzman was coroner in Mesa County until term-limited in 2006. He has continued his professional career and done autopsies traveling from Grand Junction to a number of counties since then.
If Kurtzman should not continue serving La Plata County and no other visiting forensic pathologist takes his place, cadavers would have to be shipped to Grand Junction for autopsies.
Kurtzman earned his medical degree in 1980 and has been a forensic pathologist for 27 years.
Kurtzman, who trained in Michigan, was practicing in Detroit when on Aug. 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed on takeoff, killing all six crew members and 148 passengers. The lone survivor was a 4-year-old girl.
He said he would like to see reforms to provide uniformity in coroner investigations. Currently, he said, death investigations are a patchwork of systems – state medical examiner offices in Maryland, New Mexico and Utah, regional medical examiners in Florida and county-based coroners in Colorado.
daler@durangoherald.com
