Day 1-4

The Internet is a little fussy here at our hotel so I apologize for not writing earlier.
Day 1:
Our first day at the Miami Dade Medical Examiners facility was intense but an amazing experience. When I came down here to Miami on the forensic anthropology internship I was torn between wanting to pursue forensic anthropology or forensic pathologist. After spending our very first day in the autopsy area I realized that I wanted to pursue forensic pathology as a career.
The forensic pathologists area was our first stop of the day where we had the opportunity to stand in on live autopsies and observe some interesting scenarios. The first autopsy I observed, I had the chance to hold the individual’s heart and set of lungs immediately after they had removed them from the body it was an experience unlike any other.
After our time with the forensic pathologists we went on to the bone room where we are currently working on two case reports, the bone room is an interesting place to work. In the room we have many boxes of bones that are old and new cases and in some cases ancient, such as a mummy that they have preserved in the bone room.
Odontology was the next part of our day with Dr. Souviron who is very knowledgeable in his field of expertise forensic odontology. Dr.Souviron worked on the Ted Bundy case and was a delight to work with and he taught us a lot about bite marks.

Day 2,3:
The second and third day at the facility we worked with Lenny Wolf who is a forensic photographer at the Miami Dade county Medical Examiners facility. Lenny enjoys teaching so we had a lot of fun working with him. His passion for forensic photography really makes this experience that much better.
We all got a chance to test out the cameras they use for taking crime scene photos and autopsies. It is harder to use than it looks, there is a lot of coordination involved in holding the flash in one hand and the camera in the other but Lenny and his photography staff make it look so easy.
We also had a lecture done by one of the photographers Heidi. Heidi taught us about alternate light source and it is amazing to see how the lighting from the camera makes a big difference in what you can see on an individual. She showed us that UV light can reveal a history of physical violence on the skin old bite marks that you cannot see from the naked eye and many more light sources that can show helpful evidence to cases. In these few days I realized how important photography is to an investigation and I am interested in learning more about it.

Day 4:
The internship definitely gets better by the day!
Today our day started in the bone room where we got the opportunity to macerate human remains, which means we got to de-flesh a decomposing body. The maceration was amazing; to be able to do something like that truly is once in a lifetime and not something everyone gets to do. The pots that the bones are boiled in has a stench that is indescribable, there really is nothing to compare the smell of human remains to it has a smell of its own although if you ask some of the other girls they may compare it to something. One of the girls on our trip Pilar compared the smell to mushroom soup. The remains that we macerated ended up having severe lipping, which means he had some sort of bone disease and he was probably living in a lot of pain.
After the maceration me and some of the girls got to go down to receiving where they bring the bodies in to be weighed and checked in before put in the cooler for the pathologists. Today we saw a man that had been in an accident and the entire bottom half of his body was completely twisted around so his chest and his buttocks were on the same side of his body. It was amazing to see and definitely scares you into not wanting to ride a motorcycle. They had to turn his lower half back to the normal anatomical position in order to get his height as there was a separation between the upper and lower halves. This was just one of many other things that a lot of people do not get to see and after today I can say I am truly in my element.