Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Reaches Out to FEMA For Help With Autopsy Backlog

The backlog of decedents to be autopsied at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has grown so vast that the agency reached out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance Friday morning.

According to Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Victor Weedn, the office currently has 217 decedents ready for autopsy, 18 of which will be completed Friday.

“The oldest case for us to still do is about two weeks old,” he told members of the Postmortem Examiners Commission at a meeting Friday morning.

“We anticipate to have 300 cases by February 16,” Weedn said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reached out to FEMA for support from its Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams, which are typically used to assist state and local governments after natural disasters, terrorist attacks, transportation accidents and pandemics.

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2022/02/04/maryland-office-of-the-chief-medical-examiner-reaches-out-to-fema-for-help-with-autopsy-backlog/