What are forensic experts afraid of? Dead children, broken bodies of trains and squeaks in refrigerators | Lifetime

However, the doctor speaks with great enthusiasm about his profession: “Every day you solve a riddle, a crossword like a character from Sherlock Holmes. Our work is interesting because we do not just investigate, but also go to the scene if there are suspicions of violence and injuries.

In the case of murders, our involvement as professionals is necessary. In the scene, we usually see the environment and the emotions. That information is very necessary. We appreciate everything: what the loved ones did, what the relationship was like, how the event went, who they called or called the ambulance. We desperately need all this information later to answer the questions of the researcher who assigns the task ”, S. Chmieliauskas shares his experience.

The expert says that his profession must be able to cope with emotions. Otherwise, the professionals could not work. However, they do not remain indifferent when they see the children in the research rooms.

If we bring our feelings into the exam room with us, we probably won’t be able to work. Clearly the most poignant and shocking cases are when children are brought into the exam room.

“Emotions must be put aside, left behind. If we see cases every day where people seem brutally confused, have multiple fractures, bruises, and other injuries, and carry feelings with them into the exam room, we probably won’t be able to. Of course, the most moving and shocking cases are when children are taken to the examination room, “admits the doctor.

Sigitas Chmieliauskas (Photo from personal archive)

S. Chmieliauskas says that working with the dead can be dangerous. Sometimes the bodies are so badly injured that the fractures can harm the doctors themselves. It is also rare for a deceased person to have had a disease that specialists could contract during the investigation.

“You can get stuck with a syringe, you can injure your hands with acute fractures. You can also get hepatitis. We have many cases where we only find out during research that a person has had hepatitis C, hepatitis B, pulmonary tuberculosis, and a COVID infection. in dogs, ”says the doctor.

Photos from the personal archive of Sigitas Chmieliauskas

S. Chmieliauskas recalls that during his years of work practice he had to see the most mutilated bodies after they fell from a great height or were crossed by train:

“The body rubs, it rolls on rails. In this case, it is divided into certain parts. There are many broken wounds, many fractures. In fact, these studies take time, are very complex and can last all day. “

Forensic experts don’t just have to uncover the secrets surrounding the bodies of the dead and the event environment. Investigators also often deal with loved ones who are more likely to change the circumstances of their death.

“Family members are always interested in a favorable and possibly useful cause of death. Our job is to be objective and fair at all times. It is very common for a defendant to say in court: ‘I defended myself. I had a knife in my hand. , I do not deny it. I have done such damage while turning to defend myself. ”They keep saying that. The court then asks us whether, in circumstances such as the present case, is it possible to cause harm like the one that caused the deceased and died? The task is to answer “yes” or “no.” We usually say no.

According to the expert, the fact that loved ones are lying is betrayed by the body of the deceased. In this case, the doctors report to the investigating officers so they can conduct further investigations.

“If we see any indication that the body of the deceased has been changed or transferred to another place, which we recognize due to its rigidity, by corpses, we report it to the officials, who then find out if the suspect is not lying,” says the expert.

Photos from the personal archive of Sigitas Chmieliauskas

In the labor practice of S. Chmieliauskas there were also very strange deaths, which he remembers to this day:

“I remember a very absurd situation that is still surprising. A foreigner flew in a plane, died suddenly and had to land. They called an ambulance and found her dead, then the body was brought to us for examination. During it, I diagnosed a very extensive myocardial infarction in my heart that may have been the cause of death.

Also during the study, I discovered that there is a very large tumor in the lung throughout the lobe that could have also been the cause of death. However, these two morbid changes did not result in the death of the deceased. It was caused by a simple choking on a meatball. Therefore, the deceased was not killed by a very large myocardial infarction, he was not killed by a tumor in the lung, but he was killed by a meatball.

This is not the end. Several doctors flew in that plane. If they had applied the very simple Hemlik method: when a person choked, they put pressure on the chest cavity, they could just have revived it. This cause of death seemed so unexpected, so shocking. I remember that case very well. “

S. Chmieliauskas, who spends a lot of time near the dead, looks at the fictional stories and horrible stories of people with a smile. According to the doctor, a person is really dead, it can be recognized by certain signs.

The variety of deaths and causes is enormous, so we began to look at death itself in a somewhat philosophical way.

“I have heard all kinds of stories: that there is a whisper in the refrigerators, that there is a person alive there. Stories and there are stories. In practice, we get the dead with corpse phenomena. This is real proof that the deceased is dead. The phenomena of the corpses reflect this, that is why we value these stories as very funny stories invented by people to scare them ”, says S. Chmieliauskas.

Over the years, the doctor’s relationship with death has also changed: fear has been replaced by a philosophical approach:

“Forensic doctors, experts, enthusiasts of this specialty, all of us who work here, we became philosophers. In fact, the variety of cases is enormous, the variety of causes of death is enormous, so we are seeing death itself in a somewhat philosophical way. “

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