From the Director’s Desk

Join us this Thursday, August 13 at 10 am central time for an on-line Q & A for the public. The event will begin with a brief video of an autopsy dissection of a coronary artery (for brief clip, click here.) The complete video will be followed by a live, interactive on-line Q & A through the comment section on the Autopsy Center Facebook page.

The topic for this first event is cardiac death. If you know someone who has died from heart disease and have questions; if you have always wondered exactly cholesterol plaque looks like; or if you are just curious about heart disease, please join us. Simply log in to our Facebook page (facebook.com/autopsychicago) on Thursday, August 13 at 10 am. The active post for the event will be right there. We look forward to your participation and feedback.

We are continuing to work on our video-based high school outreach, “Live from the Morgue.” Our pilot is underway and we are delighted to share some early student feedback from high schoolers, at Barrington High. Please feel free to take a look and stay tuned for updates on this program; or contact us with inquiries if you are a high school educator.

At Autopsy Center, we attend to the complete family experience during their time of loss. I have posted an essay focusing on what’s unique about a family’s experiences when the death occurs in the hospital. While hospitalizations are such common experiences, they are profound ones. In “Loss Twice: Death in the Hospital,” I highlight how the living system of hospital relationships impacts a family’s experience after a loss.

I wish everyone a happy and enjoyable remainder of our Chicago summer, slipping too quickly away.

Sincerely,

Ben Margolis, M.D.