My brother died at the age of 30 in his sleep supposedly on 04/02/11. We still do NOT have the autopsy results. The preliminary autopsy report is pending, as are the toxicology report until we get the results back from the autopsy report. Why is this? Does anyone know?
I’m sorry about your brother. I’ll say a prayer for him.
I’m guessing that the lab is probably backed up, and your brother is considered a low-priority case.
Is this a medical examiner/coroner’s case or a hospital autopsy case?
In either situation there can be delays (i.e. because of complicated toxological testing), but “preliminary” findings are, at least for hospital autopsies supposed to be released within a couple of days.
I’m very sorry for your loss. My brother also passed away unexpectedly in September. He was 41. So I know what you are going through. It took several months for us to get the autopsy results as well. My brother lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh. I found out that the county where my brother lived did not have their own staff to perform autopsies and contracted all the work out to Pittsburgh. So, as the above poster mentioned, all we could assume was that it was a back-up in cases.
I am sorry to hear about your brother. You have my condolences.
Per my experience, most medicolegal offices do not release preliminary reports for forensic cases, whereas most purely medical offices will release a Preliminary Autopsy Diagnosis for a medical case. I’m guessing your brother’s case is a medicolegal case. Toxicology testing is usually the rate limiting factor in finalizing autopsy results.
Have you tried calling the office and asking about the status? If it’s a medical examiner office, you can request to speak with the pathologist who did the autopsy. The pathologist should be willing to talk to you and tell you what they have found so far. If it’s a coroner office, you may only be able to talk to the coroner, who might be able to tell you something also. Don’t be afraid to be respectfully persistent.
In my experience (as a reporter) it is not unusual for autopsy reports to take 6-9 months. Some testing simply takes time. Some testing has to be sent out to other labs. Sometimes test results will prompt them to run additional tests. It’s just an inherently slow process.
I’m surprised that no preliminary report has been released. In my jurisdiction, the ME’s office often issues a preliminary report that says the cause of death is undetermined, with little additional detail. I can’t speak to why this hasn’t happened in your brothers case.
I’ll second what **eightysix **said: call the office and ask.
Thank for you all the wonderful responses. I have been living a horrible nightmare since that morning of his death. I have talked to the coroner several times. He informed me that the toxicology and prelim autopsy report is pending. That is the report we should have got within the first week of his passing. He stated it is pending until all of the results come back. I am unsure why. My brother was in the military, but apparently died at the residence. His wife was the only one there. I am just unsure why its pending. The DA was called. The coroner has been fantastic. He told me as soon as he gets the results he will contact me immediately. I just was not sure why the prelim report would be pending until we get the rest of the results. Also, this is a county case.
I wanted to bump this just in case some people did not read my reply and have any answers, opinions, etc., for me. Thank you again.
Perhaps part of the report hinges on the toxicology results and the coroner doesn’t want to release an incomplete report.