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Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner QUOTES

Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner QUOTES

1 " To confront death every day, to see it yourself, you have to love the living. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

2 " Mine is a gruesome job, but for a scientist with a love for the mechanics of the human body, a great one. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

3 " Staying alive, as it turns out, is mostly common sense. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

4 " There are no emergency autopsies,” another resident pointed out to me. “Your patients never complain. They don’t page you during dinner. And they’ll still be dead tomorrow. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

5 " When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses--not zebras.' In other words, most things are exactly what they seem, and the simplest answer is usually the right one. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

6 " Oh, yes—that thing about house cats is true. Your faithful golden retriever might sit next to your dead body for days, starving, but the tabby won’t. Your pet cat will eat you right away, with no qualms at all. Like any opportunistic scavenger, it will start with your eyeballs and lips. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

7 " Don't deny reality for the sake of objectivity. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

8 " Opening Yulia Koroleva's uterus was the most heartbreaking thing I'd ever done. When I saw that perfect fetus, when I took it in my hands, my vision clouded over with tears and my professional reserve fell away...[he] had fully formed organs each in its correct location, without any abnormalities. The foot length told me he had been nineteen weeks old, exactly halfway through gestation. I returned him to his mother's body, to be buried with her. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

9 " Now I found myself at a windy crime scene in the middle of Manhattan rush hour, gore on the sidewalk, blue lights and yellow tape, a crowd of gawkers, grim cops, and coworkers who kept using the word “clusterfuck.” I was hooked. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

10 " I enjoyed the intellectual rigor and scientific challenge of death investigation. Everyone there, from new students to the most senior doctors, seemed happy, eager to learn, and professionally challenged. None of the medical examiners had cots in their offices. “There are no emergency autopsies,” another resident pointed out to me. “Your patients never complain. They don’t page you during dinner. And they’ll still be dead tomorrow. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

11 " (I)f you try to treat the medical problem you *think* you see without fully exploring the differential diagnosis -- call(ed) "speculation on a foundation of assumption" -- you can kill your patient. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

12 " During my two years training as a medical examiner in New York City, I was quick to learn that there is no such thing as a 'minor' surgery. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

13 " During the last shift, an X-ray had revealed a woman’s severed hand, complete with wedding ring, entirely embedded inside the chest wall of a man’s intact torso. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

14 " Everyone thinks “murder” when you say you work as a medical examiner, but homicides are rare. “Natural” is the most common manner of death and represents about a third of the cases that come to a medical examiner’s office. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

15 " Remember: This can only end badly.” That’s what my husband says anytime I start a story. He’s right. So. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

16 " Let conversation cease. Let laughter flee. This is the place where Death delights to help the living. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

17 " There is not such thing as "minor" surgery. Minor surgery is surgery someone else has. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

18 " Maybe nobody cares about you when you are alive, but lots of people take an interest once you are dead. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

19 " of the remains you receive will be affected by this change.” Hirsch also revealed that our legal team had assembled a plan to issue death certificates for victims of the attacks based on two affidavits—one from the family and one from the employer of the missing person. “There will certainly be some victims who will never be positively identified, even by DNA,” he said. In those cases, the legal requirement for a death certificate would have to be met through sworn testimony of the people who last saw or heard from the vanished persons. “We will link the cases electronically once, and if, DNA or some other method identifies a missing person who has been issued a death certificate by judicial decree.” Dr. Hirsch finished his presentation that "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

20 " Guns leave distinct types of wounds at different ranges. A contact wound, with the gun touching or pressed into the skin, can sear a round scorch mark called a muzzle stamp. "

― Judy Melinek , Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner