Monday Afternoon Meeting at the Morgue

The main examination room at the First Judicial Circuit's Morgue Facility in Pensacola at Sacred Heart Hospital has a large floor area, multiple work stations, and a cooler on one side that holds up to 40 bodies at a time.

Yesterday afternoon I was invited to come out to the First Judicial Circuit's Morgue facility at Sacred Heart Hospital in Escambia County.

I accepted the offer and met with our First District Coroner Dr. Deanna Oleske as well as her Director/Chief of Forensic Investigations Mr. Jeff Martin.  

As I walked through the facility with Dr. Oleske, I was introduced to many of her staff of 19 employees-including two other Forensic Pathologists that are on staff as well as several technicians.  Most of the staff work at the Escambia County location--while a handful work in Okaloosa and Walton Counties.

I appreciated the opportunity to tour the facility and meet the staff--as there has been some recent high-profile turnover as the previous Coroner, Dr. Andrea Minyard, left amid quite a bit of consternation and even some litigation.

But that is all in the past now and we are moving forward with Dr. Oleske who has subsequently been hired on--and who is very energetic and determined to improve the current facilities and staffing issues.

I was invited to walk the spaces because the facility is undersized and understaffed for the increasing workload being put on this office.  I was even offered the opportunity to watch an autopsy be performed--an offer which I appreciated---but that I politely passed on. (I'll stick to re-runs of Quincy MD starring Jack Klugman on TV Land, thanks very much! that's about as close to an autopsy as I want to get)  But I was thankful in a weird kind of way to be given the opportunity to go there upright and vertical--- alive--- not wheeled in on a gurney as most visitors to that facility are.....so there is that.

"MacGyver" would be impressed with
the non-complex roof-leak "fix" applied
to the District 1 Coroner's records storage area..

As I began the tour and walked into these Coroner's office spaces at Sacred Heart, consisting of a series of small, windowless offices, common area hallways, a small conference room, various storage spaces, a large autopsy room, a large cooler where bodies are kept, and a smaller anteroom where the bodies of the badly decomposed are kept--I noticed there was a leaking roof that had some sort of a "Macgyvered" drain system installed-consisting of tubes draining into a large bucket--prominently placed in the middle of a hallway.  I've never seen anything like that before.  "They actually have cloth towels up there that catch the leaking water and drain down through the plastic roof tiles and into that bucket over there" Dr. Oleske quipped.  I thought this seemed rather odd...

In the course of conversation with

Dr. Oleske and her various staff members as we continued the tour of the facility,

it was disclosed that the Coroner pays about $5,000 monthly for these substandard spaces--much of the square footage of which is shared with Sacred Heart Hospital.  Several coroner's employees work in tiny cubicle type work stations--and in one storage room that has been repurposed, six work stations are arranged where the morgue technicians and various other administrative personnel share the space.  "When those two employees back their chairs up--they bump in to one another and so only one can backup at a time" it was pointed out to me as we peeked into that space and two stations were highlighted.

"We need more space, and we need more staff, and we need more resources" Dr. Oleske stated bluntly.  "Believe it or not, we do about the same volume as the morgue in Denver Colorado--and they have a lot more space and a lot bigger staff." she continued.

She and her staff were very willing to answer all my questions--which I greatly appreciated.  They also showed me all the areas and were quick to point out, thankfully, some new X-ray equipment and coolers that were purchased for the Coroner's office with County CARES act money.  Additional PPE was also provided by this funding source--which the staff greatly appreciated.

This box contains bones from various animals that are found
and subsequently brought to the Coroner's office
for identification... and to insure they aren't human

One very interesting space they showed me was the "Bone Room."  This is a small room with one desk, a shelf, and a giant pot and industrial sized "hot-plate" where at times the flesh from a body must be slowly cooked off of bones.  This is necessary to reveal the bones in order to determine if there is/was any evidence of foul play from knives or other instruments on such bones.  "We have to boil down some of these probably four times per year.  It takes several days to get the bones carefully separated from the flesh." Dr. Oleske pointed out.  "And no--it doesn't smell good when we are doing it" she quipped.  Thankfully--there was no bones being cooked during my visit.  "Take a look in this box," Mr. Martin stated as a large box full of bones was opened in front of me.  "These 

aren't human--but are of animals but brought to our office by various officials to determine whether or not they are human." Interesting--and understandable.  I mean-raise your hand if you could tell the difference between a human tibia and a deer bone?

When asked about her office's workload-Dr. Oleske quickly pointed out that year-over year the number of autopsies performed grew by greater than 70 percent in 2020.  She acknowledged that COVID-19 has played a big role in that increase--and not simply from a number of cases/deaths perspective.  "We are seeing young 36 year old cases brought in here dying of heart failure because they are delaying care because of COVID-19.  We are seeing a lot of drug related deaths--more than normal.  This might be because people are not able to attend addiction meetings.  We are also seeing more cases where violence escalated domestically." She stated.  "COVID-19 deaths are one thing--but there are COVID-19 related deaths increasing as well." she stated flatly.

I asked about what percentage of total deaths result in an autopsy--to which Mr. Martin responded "It's 

about 20 percent of the total deaths."  Last year in the 4-county area about 9,000 residents perished from all causes--and about 1700 of those bodies ended-up in the morgue.

As we worked our way through the remainder of the facility and saw areas where human tissue in containers filled with formaldehyde were co-located with PPE and where important medical records and microfiche negatives of homicide cases stretching back decades are stored, together, in apparently substandard conditions--it quickly became obvious that this office is undersized and insufficient.  

The cooler, directly connected to the main examination room, is large and can hold as many as 40 bodies.  When opened, I was astonished to see 35 bodies stored on racks all around the cooler and on gurneys in the middle of the space.  The smell was not overwhelming--but there was a distinctive smell I won't soon forget.  What happens when this gets filled up?  I asked.  "We are over capacity quite frequently and we simply have to do the best we can to move them out as quickly as we can so that we don't fill up." Mr. Martin stated.  One issue they brought up which was somewhat shocking to me was the issue of a next of kin NOT taking possession of a loved one's body once the coroner's office completes the autopsy and releases the body.  I was astonished to here that "this was a thing."  Dr. Oleske described it as not uncommon.  "We have it happen where for one reason or another a loved one cannot and will not take possession of a loved one's body--and we end up with the body in our cooler for sometimes as long as 60 days."  "If the county can assist with helping us streamline this issue within the indigent burial  program this would be helpful." She asked.

The exterior of the facility is also, apparently, lacking.  There are too few parking spaces for the doctors and the staff, and the area where the bodies are brought in is very constrained with no safety/security barriers keeping people from the area.  This concern was expressed to me during my visit, and upon seeing the condition myself--it was very evident.

Knowing that Escambia County pays a proportional share of the costs to run this office, and given Escambia's size compared to our neighboring counties to the east--we pay more than 50% of the total operating costs of the morgue.  With this in mind--I asked the Dr. how much it would cost us to construct her a proper facility.

"$20 Million" was her ready response.

Obviously that cost equals $10 Million for Escambia's share--so some further discussions are definitely going to be necessary to identify a funding source for this project.

There is potentially a piece of land, centrally located for the district, in Santa Rosa County south of 1-10 on SR 87 that may fit the bill for a new Coroner's office.

But a LOT more discussion will have to happen first and any such plan will be years out from now.

But there is no questioning the need--the current facility does appear insufficient.

As I left the tour an hour after I arrived--I thanked Dr. Oleske and her staff for the information and the tour, and told them I would discuss the need of the Coroner's office with staff--which I will do.

More to come on this later