San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office

Today, we had an office-​wide training put on by the SD County Medical Examiner’s Office. We covered their duties, typical injuries resulting in death, and issues surrounding death cases. Most importantly, we found out that the cold storage room that holds the corpses locks from the outside. We were all very concerned about the escape of reanimated corpses in a zombie apocalypse. I can affirmatively state that SD County is well ahead of this dreadful epidemic.

According to their County website, The Medical Examiner’s Office was originally «started with the County in 1850 as a Coroner system, and in 1990 it was converted to a Medical Examiner’s system. The major difference between the two systems is that a Medical Examiner must be a forensic pathologist. While the Medical Examiner works with all of the law enforcement agencies in the county (San Diego Sheriff’s Office, San Diego Police Department, etc.) and the District Attorneys Office,» they are completely separate from them. Currently housed in a facility in the Kearny Mesa, I have buried both my parents and the County Medical Examiner oversaw both cases. I have no complaints with their work.
If you call them up during business hours, you can request they email or snail mail you a public records copy of any autopsy or medical examiner’s report. Even though this office is one of the more gruesome of County Offices, they seem to be doing a good job and are at least accessible and helpful to the public at large. Though not a morbid person normally, I have to give props to the Medical Examiner’s Office for doing a thorough job, overall.