Thank you for posting this information, IWannaKnow. Unbelievable how quick he gets a response. Most people wait awhile before hearing back from the AG...at least two months or more. Good grief...
You know the old saying my friend.... Money talks, the rest of it just walks!!
We're going to have to agree to disagree on that. I doubt that Max's mother could make an argument persuasive enough for the ME to overlook his own findings and conclusions. If there is a new investigation that turns up new evidence, that's a different story.
Do you have a link to verify that MEs don't usually do autopsies of people who died in the hospital? That doesn't sound right to me. It may not be the majority, but I would assume that a fair number of people who die at the hospital are autopsied.
I don't know know about California, but here in Ohio, the law states that an autopsy is automatically done on a child under the age of 7, regardless of the cause of death.
Also, as was stated, the doctor at the hospital didn't know why Max was in cardiac arrest. Since the wound to his neck caused the cardiac arrest, and the doctor didn't know what had caused the cardiac arrest, we can conclude that the doctor either didn't know the severity of the wound, or wasn't aware of the fact that Max's type of injury caused cardiac arrest, which made the injury suspicious from his POV. That is enough to warrant a autopsy.
Here is a list of 25 reasons why an autopsy might be warranted. I would say at least numbers 4, 5, and 10 apply to Max's case:
http://montereytrust.com/coroner.htm
This was a great post and the article is very informative. I knew a lot of the 'rules' as we deal with them in a hospital setting, but there were some I was not aware of.
I snipped the list, so here it is!!
Not all deaths are reportable to the Coroner. Those deaths that are reportable fall into 25 categories. Those categories are:
1. No physician in attendance.
2. Medical attendance less than 24 hours (hospital or residence).
3. Wherein the deceased has not been attended by a physician in the 20 days prior to death.
4. Wherein the physician is unable to state the cause of death.
5. Known or suspected homicide.
6. Known or suspected suicide.
7. Involving any criminal action or suspicion of a criminal act.
8. Related to or following a known or suspected self-induced or criminal abortion.
9. Associated with a known or alleged rape of crime against nature.
10. Following an accident or injury, old or recent, (primary or contributory, occurring immediately or at some remote time.)
11. All deaths due to drowning, fire, hanging, gunshot, stabbing, cutting, starvation, exposure, acute alcoholism, drug addiction, strangulation or aspiration.
12. Accidental poisoning, (food, chemical agent, drug or therapeutic agent).
13. Occupational disease or occupational hazards.
14. Known or suspected contagious disease constituting a public health hazard, including AIDS.
15. All deaths in operating rooms.
16. All deaths where the patient has not fully recovered from an anesthetic whether in surgery, recovery room or elsewhere.
17. All deaths wherein the patient expired within 24 hours of an operation or surgical procedure.
18. All deaths in which the patient was comatose throughout the period of the physicians attendance, whether at home or hospital.
19. All solitary deaths.
20. All deaths of unidentified persons.
21. All deaths where the suspected cause of death is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Crib Death).
22. All deaths in prison, jails or of persons under the control of a law enforcement agency.
23. All deaths of patients in state mental hospitals.
24. Wherein there is no known next of kin.
25. Fetal deaths of older than 20 weeks gestational age.
I knew the first 6, 15-17, as I used to be an OR manager. (Thank God we never lost a patient). 21, as we had a baby in ER one time that they suspected was a death due to SIDS, but I was unaware of the remainder. Thank you, very interesting!!