Direct lightning strikes, ruptured livers, organophosphate poisonings, electrocutions, hangings — both self-inflicted and staged to look that way — snake bites and a blesbok horn through the skull — these are just some of the reasons bodies have ended up on forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal’s autopsy table. After more than 25 years in the job and having conducted more than 13,000 autopsies, there are few things he has not seen.
His investigation into why someone has died and whether a crime was committed begins before the body arrives at the morgue ― at the death scene, which can be anywhere.
“I have attended death scenes in hotels, prisons and on sports fields, and in caves, shacks, shebeens and informal settlements. Sadly, I have attended many scenes in our national parks and on top of mountains where people have hanged themselves from trees.
“I have attended death scenes on highways and railway tracks and in train stations, malls, banks, and the open veld, where bodies are often dumped, and on riverbeds.”
Investigating the circumstances that led to death can expose acts of extreme depravity, which is part of the reason he has written Trace: Case Studies of a Forensic Pathologist in Africa “for the voiceless ― the real victims”.
The “case studies” in the title may imply a gory, slab-side view similar to an episode of CSI or Law & Order, but Blumenthal’s tone is always professional as he discusses the interesting and unusual details he has gathered. The main focus of this and his other non-fiction books is on educating his readers about how they can take better care in life to avoid an unnatural or untimely death.
There are still enough oddities to satisfy the crime junkies, including stories of a severed index finger that had to be exhumed and a wasp that killed a 42-year-old man.
Blumenthal believes the field of forensic pathology has a duty to safeguard the community’s health and safety, though he points out that the pathologists working in South Africa’s underresourced labs are under immense pressure.
“Data shows that South Africa’s pathology service is currently under great strain, with only 80 to 90 qualified forensic pathologists serving more than 64-million people, against a backdrop of about 70,000 unnatural deaths per year. Forensic pathologists have extremely high caseloads (more than 250 autopsies per forensic pathologist per year), and this often results in backlogs.”
Blumenthal concludes the book with some lessons for the living that he has learnt from the dead, including:
- Recognising that the biggest risk you face in life is yourself. “Statistically, the chances are higher of you hurting yourself or dying because of your own bad choices or actions than because of someone else’s bad choices or actions.”
- Stop rushing and take things more slowly. “There’s wisdom in taking things slow. You get to know the world better that way. When you rush, you easily break things. Taking things slowly lets you see life more clearly.”
Decades in the morgue doing “exhausting, dirty, backbreaking, time-consuming and dangerous work” have taught Blumenthal that the real tragedy is not death and dying but “never having lived”.
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