Hennepin County Profile
Hennepin County, Minnesota sent this bulletin at 07/30/2015 11:36 AM CDT
To learn more about how Hennepin County works for you, the District 3 team conducts a profile series with employees of the county who live in the district. Each month we spotlight a different person from varying departments and occupations. Find out about the day-to-day aspects of occupational fields and work environments at the county, and how each person’s work affects your life.
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Lindsey C. Thomas, MD |
Describe your work.
I am a Forensic Pathologist, and am one of the people responsible for investigating deaths that occur in Hennepin, Dakota, and Scott Counties. Specific types of death have to be reported to the Medical Examiner’s office by law, such as homicides, suicides, and accidents, but most are natural deaths. We have medicolegal death investigators who go to the scenes, and I am one of the people who do autopsies. Our office does about three autopsies in a day. We also review scene photos and investigator data from family members, law enforcement, physicians, and others; we put this together with the autopsy and toxicology results to determine the cause and matter of death. We are also responsible for proper identification of each decedent.
What part of your job do you find most challenging?
So much of what we see is preventable that it is hard not to feel a little discouraged sometimes because there are so many unnecessary deaths. It’s challenging when we’re dealing with drug overdose deaths or motor vehicle deaths due to drunk driving or not wearing seat belts, or homicides. Philosophically, that is the most challenging: to maintain positivity in the face of so many bad things, but I’d like to think the Medical Examiner’s office is part of the broader public health portion of the county that can provide data to policy makers and increase public awareness.
What do you find most enjoyable?
What I love best is the sense that what I’m doing is important. Everyone wants to feel like what they’ve done has made a difference. I’m helping families get answers; I’m helping to figure things out for people. What we do at the medical examiner's office really matters. If there is a high-profile death and the medical examiner doesn’t provide good information, there is a breach of public trust. I feel like we maintain that trust, and provide transparency for the broader public and closure for family members.
I enjoy interacting with families, because while it may be another day for me, for families it may be the worst thing ever to happen to them. Families can be amazing, and incredibly graceful under terrible circumstances, and it is inspiring to see people with such courage. I feel lucky to be around that.
What is one thing everyone should know about the work you do?
"Make good decisions!" No one wants to end up as a medical examiner case; it's the lucky people who don't know we exist. People should wear their seatbelts, only take the amount of drugs that have been prescribed to them, get treatment for mental illness and keep guns locked up. There are so many things you can’t control, so people should manage those that they can.
We're very respectful of families, and we recognize that the death of a loved one is a terrible tragedy that has happened to them. We maintain a professional demeanor, but we still really feel for them. We hope that is conveyed in every interaction we have with families.
Lindsey Thomas is a resident of the Lynnhurst neighborhood, and is an Assistant Medical Examiner for the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office provides death investigative services and forensic autopsy services for deaths that occur in Hennepin County, Dakota County, and Scott County. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office provides forensic autopsy services for other counties across the Midwest on a referral basis. All deaths that are sudden or unexpected or occur from other than natural causes must be reported to the Medical Examiner. For more information, click here.
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