all, except o we were lucky that we had some boaters leaving newport beach going to catalina island and they came upon a body floating in the water. just happened to see it? just happened to see it. that s a big ocean out there. absolutely. so the chances of it being seen are, what, needle in the haystack? very slim. reporter: the sailors had spotted a flock of shrieking seagulls perched on top of a body. it looked like it had been in the water for some time. it was in extreme decomposition phase. right. bloated and barnacles had attached themselves. barnacles already? absolutely. yes. reporter: there was no i.d. on the body. it was labeled a john doe and taken to the l.a. coroner s office. well, initially it was believed to be a drowning victim. reporter: but who was he? identifying their john doe posed a huge challenge. we could only say it was a human being and that was it.
case here by any means, avoiding known seizure triggers. people who have had epilepsy for a long time often have an idea what some of the triggers might be and avoidance of those is very important. alcohol can be associated with this. just simple things like not enough sleep as well. again, we don t know that to be the case. the l.a. coroner is investigating this. we ll have an actual result from them 6 to 8 weeks from now. but from what the family has said, from his medical condition this is sort of where things are pointing. but med kaegz cications can seizures like that? what happens during a seizure? well, when you re thinking about seizures overall in the brain and looking at the function, you re seeing basically a burst of electrical activity in a particular place in the brain. that s what a seizure is. now, demanding on where in the brain this is happening, different symptoms can occur. so sometimes it s hard to
beach going to catalina island and they came upon a body floating in the water. just happened to see it? just happened to see it. that s a big ocean out there. absolutely. so the chances of it being seen are, what, needle in the haystack? very slim. reporter: the sailors had spotted a flock of shrieking seagulls perched on top of a body. it looked like it had been in the water for some time. it was in extreme decomposition phase. right. bloated and barnacles had attached themselves. barnacles already? absolutely. yes. reporter: there was no i.d. on the body. it was labeled a john doe and taken to the l.a. coroner s office. well, initially it was believed to be a drowning victim. reporter: but who was he? identifying their john doe posed a huge challenge. we could only say it was a human being and that was it. reporter: though there was one odd thing. medical examiner pointed to the man s left hand. three fingers were missing, and clearly had be
more than 50 years between them. but nothing like the case that literally floated to them on a lonely reach of ocean out by catalina. would never have had the case at all, except we were lucky that we had some boaters leaving newport beach going to catalina island and they came upon a body floating in the water. just happened to see it? just happened to see it. that s a big ocean out there. absolutely. so the chances of it being seen are, what, needle in the haystack? very slim. reporter: the sailors had spotted a flock of shrieking seagulls perched on top of a body. it looked like it had been in the water for some time. it was in extreme decomposition phase. right. bloated and barnacles had attached themselves. barnacles already? absolutely. yes. reporter: there was no i.d. on the body. it was labeled a john doe and taken to the l.a. coroner s office. well, initially it was believed to be a drowning victim. reporter: but who was he? identifyin
and they came upon a body floating in the water. just happened to see it? just happened to see it. that s a big ocean out there. absolutely. so the chances of it being seen are, what, needle in the haystack? very slim. reporter: the sailors had spotted a flock of shrieking seagulls perched on top of a body. it looked like it had been in the water for some time. it was in extreme decomposition phase. right. bloated and barnacles had attached themselves. barnacles already? absolutely. yes. reporter: there was no i.d. on the body. it was labeled a john doe and taken to the l.a. coroner s office. well, initially it was believed to be a drowning victim. reporter: but who was he? identifying their john doe posed a huge challenge. we could only say it was a human being and that was it. reporter: though there was one odd thing. medical examiner pointed to the man s left hand. three fingers were missing, and clearly had been, said the examiner, for year