From: ahk@chinet.com
J.D. Baldwin wrote:
>So, I don't mention this much, but I have been a fire/EMS responder
>for going on 25 years, on and off. And for a while there, I had a
>role on a response team at a scarily large industrial site in my home
>city in southwest Michigan. The company paid for annual attendance at
>the state EMS organization's "EMS Expo," a conference, training
>opportunity and vendor expo that was always held in Grand Rapids.
>One year, they decided to move it to the big Greektown convention
>center in Detroit. As it turned out, attendance at the event was
>maybe 1/3 of a typical year in GR. It was a disaster. But the event
>went forward, and I was there.
>One of the training / continuing education "courses" was a "live
>autopsy" in the Wayne County Morgue. Being a morbid SOB (stop me when
>I say something surprising to you), I signed up. I'd been to cadaver
>"labs," but a cadaver is *nothing* like an actual un-formalin'ed body.
>So this would be a new experience.
>Well, I expected to sit in a small set of bleachers while someone came
>in and dissected the body "over there" on a table maybe 25 feet away.
>(There was a sheet covering what was obviously a body on the table
>already.)
>Imagine my shock when Werner-freaking-Spitz and his trusty long-time
>assistant Diane Lucke! I had no idea he'd be doing the "class" -- I
>simply hadn't read the description closely enough, because he was
>named as the pathologist who would do the autopsy. I knew who he was,
>mainly from JonBenet Ramsey coverage; I believe we even discussed him
>in a.o. a few times.
>Well, he had us crowd round the table where he introduced himself and
>Diane and said, in his heavy German-Israeli accent, "Now I will
>uncover the body. And so, as you have all seen on television, one of
>you will have to ... ?" He waited for the answer. Someone said,
>"Faint?" And he said, "Yes, very good, someone will have to scream
>and faint." Then he yanked the sheet off and no one fainted.
Hahahahaha
That is a reference to the first episode of Quincy, M.E. "Go Fight City
Hall... to the Death!" from NBC Mystery Movie, 10/3/1978. Uh, humor.
Quincy was not interested in teaching a bunch of police cadets but
getting back to investigating this episode's main mystery. They all
fainted as he performed the autopsy as quickly as possible. Gee, I hope
he didn't miss anything important. A clip from this scene was used on
the opening titles for years when it became a weekly 60-minute series.
>I had taken up residence at the head and I got to "help" Diane with
>the bone saw as Dr. Spitz walked her, and us, through the procedure.
>He passed around lungs, the heart, other structures.
>Diane announced that it was perfectly okay to take pictures. So out
>came 25 phones and snapped away. Ten minutes later, a lady from the
>office came in and said, "I understand some of you are taking
>pictures. You can't do that. Please delete them." There was a
>general murmur of assent.
>You can guess what I did. I would never post the unedited photo
>publicly (if you meet me, you may ask to see it but I won't give you a
>copy), but I've smeared out all the gross bits and some faces:
> https://www.panix.com/~baldwin/ws.png
I wanted to see him holding the heart.
>After 90 minutes of autopsy training, we de-robed, washed up and went
>to an auditorium where we were treated to an absolutely fascinating
>slide presentation. Then there were snacks. No, I'm not making up
>the snacks.
I would have skipped the snacks.
>I got to chat with "Werner," as he insisted I call him, for maybe ten
>minutes before clearing out. For the rest of the conference, I was
>all HOLY CRAP I GOT TO DO AN AUTOPSY WITH WERNER SPITZ. Still get
>excited at the memory.
Great story; thanks
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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