An Autopsy Scenario

Situation:   A dentist age 45 in St. Louis, Missouri tells his assistant he has chest pain and asks for an aspirin.  Moments later he dies in the office bathroom.

The dentist’s life-insurance company deems the death the results of natural causes...probably rupture of a known aneurysm in his aorta (artery running from the heart), resulting from prolonged accumulation of atherosclerotic plaque.

Issue:  Knowing that the dentist had a car accident a month before and that the insurance-policy proceeds would be much more significant for an accidental death, the family contacts Peace of Mind Private Autopsy Services to perform an autopsy on the dentist.

Resolution:  The pathologist discovers that the dentist did indeed suffer a ruptured aortic aneurysm, but not his known atherosclerotic aneurysm (in his chest).  Instead, the rupture occurred in a new aneurysm of (dissecting) type, resulting directly from the traumatic injury at the time of the vehicular accident a month earlier.

The time interval between injury and rupture for this type of aneurysm is often prolonged.  This finding not only provides peace of mind to the grieving family, but also a substantially high insurance pay out.