Page 13 - Daniel Spitz News Today

Man has severe liver disease. >> thats from long-standing alcohol. look at that. its as cirrhotic as they get. hes a young man, 36, pretty unusual to develop cirrhosis of the liver at that age. the autopsy did confirm he had alcoholic liver cirrhosis. i want to confirm his toxicology was not a causative or contributory factor in the death because he does have an underlying history of prescription drug abuse. >> curt lewitskis autopsy like andrea beans, is filed as pending until test results come...

Large amounts of water which is the polydypsia. and the psychogeneric part means its brought on by an underlying psychosis. >> the autopsy results are not a surprise to her family. andrea had been hospitalized for the condition before. >> andrea had a history of three other episodes of losing consciousness, she would have a seizure, stop breathing and then nearly cardiac arrest. >> dr. spitz is able to determine the cause and manner of andreas death. but the blood found throughout her house rema...

Was done in a purposeful manner. >> andreas condition deteriorated since being diagnosed with mental illness three years before her death. her family is frustrated and angry with the care she received. >> the mental health care system is grossly inadequate to take care of mentally ill people. >> when will people become aware that these arent just strange people out there? these are family members. these are people that you pass on the streets. these are people that need care. need someone watchi...

It on his son, saying they were playing on carpet reels at this warehouse and cindy fell down this elevator shaft. >> at the morgue, dr. spitz has two goals. he tries to confirm that the remains are indeed cindys. >> once they are laid out we can photograph everything. we need it to be definitive in regards to the identification. we cant as the medical examiner just assume it is who we think it is based on circumstantial information. we have to be definitive and use some type of biological means...

Even though the organs are decomposed you can still at this level of decomposition make a pretty good analysis of everything. you have a stock container? >> all of anns organs turn out to be normal except for her enlarged heart. but until her blood samples are tested for drugs, dr. spitz must move this death investigation as pending. >> one of the things i will exclude before i focus my attention back on the heart is the toxicology concern that i have because of the medications that shes on. but...

Caused septic shock and a fairly rapid death. hello. mr. markham? >> dr. spitz reaches out to the womans husband to see whether his story will corroborate the findings in the autopsy room. >> i just wanted to let you know the examine was done yesterday and wanted to ask you a couple questions if i could. was she having abdominal pain? did she have a fever? >> and i told him, when he asked me about the pain i told him she had pain in her right side. >> what happened really close to the time that ...

Paper bags at the scene to preserve potential evidence. because of the suspicious nature of the death, forensic nurses are brought in to perform a sexual assault exam. >> got cervical swabs. >> they meticulously pull samples from the body and place them into marked envelopes and bags which are sent to a lab for analysis. kristina and michelle take several samples of blood from different parts of the body. >> you got enough for tox. >> urine, eye fluid, and tissue samples are also collected for t...

>> she may have some heart disease. she could have an enlarged heart. certainly thats common in people who are obese. >> excessive body weight puts additional strain on the heart. which over time can cause it to become enlarged. this is known as cardiomegaly. once the heart is enlarged its ability to pump blood efficiently may become impaired often leading to heart failure or in some cases sudden death from a cardiac arrhythmia or irregular heart beat. dr. spitz will now determine whether this i...

A certified financial planner professional. cfp. lets make a plan. dr. daniel spitz, medical examiner for macomb county, michigan, handles about 1500 deaths a year. thats about four a day. the business of death is always brisk and certainly intense. so he seizes any opportunity he can to get out on the ice and let off some steam. he works his games in before the dead come calling, which they already did. >> hi.

Unknown cause of death. and an unknown situation until the exam is done. >> despite the morbid surroundings, its just another day at the medical examiners office. >> when are you going back up to your cottage? >> probably next week. i have five off. so ill be going. i cant wait. oh, i cant wait. >> dr. spitz begins the exam by analyzing the information his medical investigator gathered at the scene. >> you know hes got real signs of chronic alcoholism. he has a long history of alcohol abuse. hes...