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| Forensic journey in Nagasaki |
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Chan, Yi-hsun
Kaohsiung Medical University |
Forensic medicine, a science to the knowledge of both civil and criminal law in order to aid administration of justice and mostly is to find the cause of death. I am Yi-hsun Chan, a medical student studying at Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan. All I learned from school is how to diagnose diseases and treat patients, but a dead body, I have no idea. In my second year of the clerkship, the school provided the opportunity to go to others university to study for four weeks. And I wanted to know more about forensic. Thus, I took the chance to go forensic medicine department in Nagasaki University to explore what forensics does.
The first time I met professor Ikemasu, he asked me what was my purpose to come here. For me, I hoped to learn the manner of forensics, enrich my experiences of life and broaden my vision of world. Then professor introduced me to other people including his staffs and students. Meanwhile, he showed me many laboratory equipment they had for a different domain like pathology, biochemistry, and toxicology. The first impression in my mind of the laboratory is automatically. Many advanced instruments can accomplish many tasks by themselves such as done many analyses in a time, which may be achieved by artificial in Taiwan. It is convenient and efficient. In the end, we visited the CT room for post-mortem and autopsy room where professor introduced the software of Ami Voice Forensic Medicine to me with proud. This software was invented by professor Ikematsu. This sound system can turn the finding that doctors say during the autopsy to the word. Therefore, it is automatically again. I was so excited to see how it works in the real autopsy. Thus the forensic journey officially started.
During these four weeks, they made me participate in lots of things. The first thing I was assigned was to analysis the cause of death just by photos of the autopsy. That was difficult and totally confused me since the cause of death was not so obvious. I had to read some related papers, ruled out some possible causes and looked pictures many times to find out the detail. Fortunately, there were some typical signs that made me ensure the cause of death. On the other hand, I learned how to perform the diatom test which used in drowning case. It has to take two days to perform the test. This test can help us to distinguish that person die before sunk in the water or not by comparing the diatom from the water where person was found and tissue from the body.In the course of here, the most thing I had done was an autopsy. It was so lucky for me to join autopsy here, working with the doctors, police officers, and dentists. I like this feeling of work together as a team. For another thing, I could see the whole procedure of the autopsy and how AmiVoice works. It is brilliant software, which might be can use in different fields, like surgery record. In the autopsy period, we had to inspect every detail on the corpse body like detectives to figure out what was the cause of death, which is the most interesting part. We had to decide what the cause of death was and was it caused by single or multiple factors. In the final stage of every autopsy, I was asked what the cause of death like a member of the group which made me excited but also nervous. Some cases were more complicated and it brought much fun in discussion with the professor. In addition to learning the knowledge during the autopsy, I, a medical student, could see the gross change of disease like myocardial infarction, polycystic renal disease and epidural hemorrhage, which I just can saw on the pictures in the past.
Besides the clinical practice, Dr. Umehara also presented his research about how to diagnose the fatal hypothermia. He found some gene expression like OPRD1 and TTR might relate to fatal hypothermia. Furthermore, he added alcohol effect in his research because there were many cases of fatal hypothermia with elevated blood alcohol level. Interestedly alcohol seems have special effects which make people prone to cause fatal hypothermia. Actually, I had joined some autopsy cases suspected fatal hypothermia during these four weeks. Thus, it is not an uncommon situation. It is the very important issue not only in Japan but in Taiwan during winter. Meanwhile, he taught me what is real time PCR which he used in his research.
Apart from study, Nagasaki is a good place for travel, too. At mountain Inasa, you can see one of the three cities with the most spectacular night views in the world. Glover Garden has traditional homes built with the stunning view of Nagasaki Port. Moreover, the grieved experience that we cannot forget in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
 In conclusion, I had many good times here and people were so nice to me. The professor is so humorous that I could hear the laugh all the time in a laboratory. I learned the knowledge of legal medicine, took part in the autopsy, saw the advanced ways in forensic medicine, and the most important thing was met the people here. If I had the chance, I would like to improve my Japanese to involve case information more and I want to join the identification of child abuse with the professor. Anyway, I enjoyed every moment in here and if you want to know how great it is. You should come here and experiment by yourself. |
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