An urgent need for more medical examiners to perform autopsies led Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences Director Angelo Della Manna to partner this year with neighboring states.
The ADFS and several Southeastern counterparts now share, for short periods, their shrinking pools of medical examiners to get autopsy exams done promptly.
When it comes to autopsies — performed when someone dies unexpectedly or is a victim of a violent crime —long wait times aren’t acceptable, Della Manna told Alabama Daily News.
“Families are waiting to get their loved ones back,” he said. “… We can’t let their bodies sit in a morgue for a week.”
After the retirement of one medical examiner earlier this year and the sudden death of another, Della Manna said the department’s three morgues were struggling. A national shortage of forensic pathologists makes hiring a challenge.
Meanwhile, their work is increasing. The morgues now perform more than 3,000 autopsies a year.
“We continue to see a significant increase in overdose deaths, two to three a day every day,” Della Manna said. Most of those are accidental fentanyl deaths, he said.
There have also been more firearm deaths, particularly in Montgomery.
“We have an increased number of homicide victims,” Della Manna said. “When you have more and more bodies coming to the morgue and then you lose medical examiners — my focus continues to be on completing the exams and getting them back to their families in a timely manner. So, we’re trying to think outside the box.”
Della Manna over the summer sought an emergency contract to allow out-of-state medical examiners to work short stints in Alabama while on leave from their regular jobs. A Las Vegas-based company helps coordinate calendars for the visiting doctors, as well as their required paperwork. They must be licensed in Alabama to perform autopsies.
Della Manna will be at today’s Legislative Contract Review Committee meeting to field any questions lawmakers might have about his new contract with Forensic Pathology Staffing. Ceilinged at $1.2 million, the contract runs through September 2025. The doctors are paid per autopsy they perform.
Della Manna compares the situation to power company linemen from other states helping restore electricity after a natural disaster.
Under the contract, Della Manna has access to about 10 medical examiners from states including Georgia and Mississippi. Recently, a doctor from Arkansas spent two weeks at ADFS’ Mobile morgue.
“We’ve offered to help them and they’ve offered to help us until all of us can recruit more into the field,” Della Manna said about the partnership.
Only about three dozen new forensic pathologists have been certified each year over the last 10 years. Fewer medical students are entering pathology, and even fewer residents are entering forensic pathology, according to the American College of Pathology.
Meanwhile, there are about 80 medical examiner vacancies this year nationwide, Della Manna said.
“They can work anywhere they want,” Della Manna said about new doctors entering the profession.
The department recently began working with the University of Alabama System to introduce medical students to forensic pathology earlier in their educations.
The ADFS currently has eight forensic pathologists across its three morgues in Huntsville, Montgomery, and Mobile. It needs two or three more.
Della Manna said he hopes the new laboratory and morgue slated to open in Huntsville next spring will be a recruitment tool to attract a new medical examiner.
“We can’t wait and do an autopsy a week from Tuesday because we’re busy,” Della Manna said.