Death Investigation from Scene to Autopsy

"The purpose of this book. this book is designed for both the pathologist who performs an occasional forensic autopsy and the medical investigator (e.g., field agent, investigator, coroner) who must evaluate if the autopsy has been performed to an adequate degree for the determination of cause and manner of death. it can also be used by independent consultants and lawyers who must evaluate a case as to the adequacy of the services performed by the person who performed the autopsy. it is not designed as a text book of pathology. it is assumed that readers can obtain standard textbooks of pathology to ascertain basic disease processes. each chapter is designed to acquaint the reader with the specific type of death (e.g., natural, suicide, homicide, accident) and to give a quick summary of that type of entity. It then has a section that tells how the author approaches that type of case for autopsy. finally at the end of each chapter there is a 'check list" or list of things to remember to do on cases. a list of things that any evaluator must ask: " was this done on the case at hand?" if not, then why was it not done? also if these things were not done can one legitimately reach the same conclusion that the pathologsist, who performed the autopsy, did.? or was the case performed erroneously such that the conclusions of the pathologist are untenable. In order to use this book effectively one must aks what type of case is this? is it a case in which the cause and manner of death are known and it is a formality to evaluate the autopysy as to its correctness? or is it a case in which one is evaluating the performance of the pathologist? "--Provided by publisher.