A new life for the coroner’s office

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week authorized a $32.1-million renovation project to help ease a logjam of human remains at the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. Office and lab space will be reconfigured, and areas with biohazard materials will be isolated. The project is scheduled to be completed August 2010.

---

Highlights of the coroner’s office and its role

*

Who goes there

-

-Anyone who dies in L.A. County of trauma or what may be unnatural causes.

-Some who die of natural causes, including those who die at work or in custody and those whose identity is unknown.

*

What happens inside

-

For natural deaths, accidents and suicides:

-A full-body photo is taken on arrival.

-Remains are weighed, measured and undressed.

-Fingerprints are taken.

-Clothing is wrapped in brown paper and tied.

-Remains are placed in refrigerated storage pending exams and release to a mortuary.

-Identity and cause of death are confirmed.

-

For homicides, deaths at work or in custody ,and police shootings:

After a full-body photo, remains are undressed, washed down and photographed again; evidence is preserved.

*

The workload

-50 cases a day are referred to the agency.

-20 to 25 go through the facility; 15 to 20 are autopsied; private mortuaries handle the rest.

-16% get neuropathologic exams.

-300 unidentified cases are investigated a year; 20 to 30 of them are never identified.

-Last Sunday, there were 344 bodies in the facility, which was built to accommodate about 325. On April 30, it had 447 bodies.

-The county has contracts with three private crematoriums to help cut the backlog of remains that go to the county’s Evergreen Cemetery crematorium.

*

TV vs. reality

-Relatives never make an identification by viewing the body. (A photo is used.)

-Shriveled-up fingers are only scary props. In reality, they can be rehydrated to lift prints to match a body.

-A small staff of physicians performs autopsies on (TELEVISION PROGRAM); in reality, 24 pathologists use 14 stations in three autopsy rooms.

-As seen on TV, scanning electron microscopes do find trace evidence.

-DNA analysis takes days, not less time than a TV episode.

*

What the renovation project entails

-Moving public functions to the now-vacant Old Administration Building by the end of 2006.

-Isolating biohazard and “clean” areas on three floors of medical examiner’s lab building.

-Creating air circulation system that isolates and filters air in biohazard areas.

-Creating a flow through the lab facility for the remains so they don’t arrive and exit through the same area.

-Restoring emergency operations space by moving offices, as well as moving the Skeletons in the Closet gift shop out of the current Administration Building.

-Adding a 5,000-square-foot crypt outside the lab building by August 2010.

*

Changes to the 3rd Floor

-Creating biohazard zones, with two sets of separation doors.

-Adding two autopsy suites.

-Creating autopsy viewing areas for law enforcement and other officials.

-Relocating men’s and women’s locker rooms and some offices.

-----

Sources: Los Angeles County Department of Coroner, Los Angeles County Chief Administrative Office. Graphics reporting by Cheryl Brownstein-Santiago

-

Recent regional explainer graphics are available at latimes.com/localgraphics