Author - The Durango Herald

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

When suicide isn’t: Cultures interpret death differently

Dr. Keith Campbell, the British scientist whose research in cell biology led to the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep, died at 58. A clone is a fully functioning, living copy created from a si...

DATE: Nov 10, 2013 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Court right to fine UNM regents for intimidation

According to the Albuquerque Journal, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has upheld a $100,000 sanction levied against the regents of the University of New Mexico for witness intimidation. ...

DATE: Oct 12, 2013 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

What’s proper burial for an aborted fetus?

Medical examiners have to decide the cause and manner of death when somebody dies under their jurisdiction. That’s not all they have to decide. Sometimes, they have to decide wh...

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

From beginning to end, Mom was my best friend

As a kid, I was a loner. I don’t recall much teasing or bullying, just isolation. I wished for friends, but my interests (anything to do with science) were so different from the interests of...

DATE: Aug 11, 2013 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

The murky world of morphine and palliative care

Sometimes, my colleagues report cases in which palliative or comfort care crosses the line into euthanasia. Palliative care is intended not to treat illness or prolong life but to...

DATE: Jul 7, 2013 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

Sometimes there’s no substitute for an autopsy

Autopsies cost a lot of money. At least $2,500.00 each, cost accountants say. Hospitals rarely do autopsies. Decades ago, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Inst...

DATE: Jun 9, 2013 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

When seizure led to death, was that ruled a suicide?

“We (medical examiners) certify on the basis of our own training, personal philosophy and mood,” wrote one of my colleagues during a contentious online debate about the “correct” manner of d...

DATE: May 12, 2013 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report