Post-mortem examinations are necessary, but they’re not pretty

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It was reported in the middle of December that the former State Pathologist, Professor John Harbison had died. He was in his 80s and passed away peacefully according to a death notice. That name might not mean much to lots of people and that’s understandable because he had been out of the limelight for many years and kept a low profile.

During my working life though, there wasn’t a single member of An Garda Siochana who wouldn’t have been familiar with him. He was a legend, and everyone had their own story to tell about him.

Professor John Harbison was appointed as the state’s first forensic Pathologist in 1974 and held that position until he retired in 2003. He was instantly recognisable with his full beard, tweed clothes and his glasses perched on the end of his nose. He was involved in all the high-profile murder cases during that time and regularly appeared on the news arriving at a murder scene.

Before serving as the first forensic pathologist in the country, he lectured in medical jurisprudence at Trinity College Dublin, and in the early 1990s was appointed professor of forensic medicine and toxicology at the Royal College of Surgeons. He came to the Garda College in Templemore in 1979 to speak to us trainees about the importance of preserving evidence at a crime scene and he was very impressive.

I met him on a few occasions subsequently, and he was a bit of a character. It wasn’t unusual for him to produce a sandwich while performing an autopsy and I know a few gardai who removed themselves from a post-mortem after watching him in action. He took his job seriously though and was always respectful to the dead.

He was also well known for calling a spade a spade and when asked about the bad odour in a morgue he said, “When decomposition begins, things rapidly become very smelly.” They certainly do and that was very true of the old city morgue in White Street in Cork.

It was an old inconspicuous building off Georges Quay, and will be remembered by older and retired members of An Garda Siochana and not in a nice way. It had a large timber sliding door at the front and most people walking by probably didn’t even know that it was the city morgue although they may have had their suspicions at times.

Post-mortem examinations were carried out there, but it wasn’t fit for purpose. It was sadly lacking in the ventilation department and the smell could be very unpleasant, so it was not the place to be if you were of a delicate disposition. I suspect those odours could often be detected by passers-by on the street outside too.

It was no place to bring relatives of deceased persons either which we regularly had to do for the purpose of having a body formally identified. The morgue attendants in those days sometimes bought their own sprays to try and neutralise the air but they weren’t always effective.

Dr. Margaret Bolster, another well-known pathologist, once told me that the best way to combat the odour was to fill your lungs with it. She suggested that instead of trying to fight it, it was better to take a few deep breaths and while the initial effect might not be very pleasant, you didn’t notice it so much after that. She was right but sometimes the smell could linger in your nostrils for days.

That morgue eventually closed in the late nineties and a new, modern facility was developed in the Cork University Hospital. It was a state-of-the-art facility with a viewing area, a waiting room and a prayer room. I think the old place was demolished and replaced with apartments and not a moment too soon either. Post-mortem examinations were difficult enough without having to tolerate dire conditions as well.

Some gardai can go through their entire service without ever having to attend an autopsy but I wasn’t one of them. I went through a period in the nineties when I had to attend five of them in the space of eight weeks. It was just the luck of the draw and while they can be unpleasant, they are an essential part of certain criminal investigations.

The purpose of an autopsy is to determine the cause of death. In cases where someone dies in suspicious, sudden, violent, or unexplained circumstances, the Coroner will authorise a post-mortem examination or autopsy, and then nominates a pathologist to carry out the examination.

Post-mortems provide important information about how, when and why someone died, and they enable pathologists to obtain a better understanding of how death occurred. The findings of the Pathologist are essential for those investigating the death and also to assist the Coroner at the subsequent inquest.

It’s a difficult experience for all involved but an essential process that can play a significant role in bringing an offender to justice. Apart from criminal circumstances, autopsies assist in preventing future natural deaths by identifying causes and providing vital information to medicine.

It’s important therefore that people are trained in this business and bodies are required for that purpose which is why universities are so grateful when remains are donated to them for scientific purposes. Anatomical donation makes a unique contribution to training the next generation of health professionals and scientists.

Noel Baker pointed out in the Irish Examiner recently that senior medics have said a shortage of bodies donated to universities for anatomical work because of Covid-19 raises “significant concerns in terms of the progression of trainees to surgical training”.

That’s not good news because without these generous donations, it will be difficult to replace the likes of John Harbison, Marie Cassidy and Margaret Bolster and we need these people.