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Businessman's autopsy hotline is in demand
August 10, 1996
Web posted at: 12:10 a.m. EDT
From Correspondent Jim Hill
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Vidal Herrera unloads his tools in preparation for a post-mortem examination -- an autopsy.
Prompted by a sharp drop in routine hospital-performed autopsies, he has built a business in Los Angeles out of the demand for the service. You can reach Autopsy/Post Services Inc. by dialing a toll-free number: 1-800-autopsy.
"It could be natural causes, violent causes or suspicious causes. People just need to know, and we're here to help them find the answers." Herrera said.
He acts as an intermediary or agent who links families with any of 14 doctors who will perform an autopsy while he assists.
As an answering machine fields incoming calls, Herrera suits up and awaits the arrival this time of Dr. Sylvia Comparini, whom he will assist in a family-requested post-mortem examination.
Business is good
One reason Herrera's private autopsy business is doing well is that routine post-mortem exams have become increasingly rare. Experts say hospitals used to do autopsies on about half of its dead patients, but that number has decreased.
"Since the 1950s and early 1960s, there has been a tremendous drop, and particularly in the 1980s, to now we are seeing about a 12 percent rate." Margaret Hastiness of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago said.
County medical examiners now are required to autopsy only the victims of crime and certain accidents. Autopsies also are done if a person dies with no one else present.
Autopsy supporters say the drop in routine hospital autopsies robs researchers of valuable information.
"Medicine is a science and it depends upon its data base, and we should be building our data base." said Dr. Brian Johnston of the Los Angeles County Medical Society.
Some people blame the decline in autopsy procedures on insurance companies, many of which don't cover autopsy expenses.
"Health insurance, by definition, is for costs associated with getting well. On the other hand, death has very little to do with getting well," Richard Coorsh of the Insurance Association of America explained.
Nevertheless, some families are still requesting autopsies and are paying up to $2,000 for the service. One of Herrera's clients was the family of a hospitalized mental patient who died unexpectedly.
"We have been given information and an explanation that we are not completely satisfied with. So that's why we are interested in having our own private autopsy." Michael Coope, a family member, said.
But Herrera's commercialization has its critics.
"There is advertising with a van ... 1-800-autopsy and advertising it ... that's not ethical medicine." forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz said.
Regardless of his critics, Herrera's business is growing. He plans to offer more than 70 franchises around the country and may expand the service worldwide.
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