I am a forensic pathologist

Author: Zhang Zhihao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: I know what most people associate with the term "forensic medicine." Bloody crime scenes, terrifying corpses, dim and humble work environments. I have also seen the admiring gazes of young people, eagerly hoping to learn about my experiences. Whether it's disdain or admiration, I have lived happily among the crowd. I only want to say, I have never regretted my choice. In fact, like most forensic medicine professionals in China, I did not major in forensic medicine for my undergraduate degree. My medical degree led me to a career as a surgeon. Several years as a surgeon left me with much reflection, and when I look back on those days, I still feel the sunshine. Perhaps because I was too young, the monotonous repetition of surgeries day after day and the increasingly severe herniated discs pushed me to the brink of endurance. I decided to pursue a graduate degree, and my choice at the time surprised everyone: forensic medicine. The reason for my choice was simple: I flipped through the national graduate school admission catalog of that year, and there were fewer than ten nursing majors and fewer than twenty forensic medicine majors. I chose the latter. Time flies, and six years have passed in the blink of an eye. The world has changed, and I have changed too. If time could turn back, my reasons for making the choice might no longer be so simple, but I would still make the same choice. I have never regretted my choice—because I cannot forget the scene where the parties in a civil case, who were in intense conflict, calmed down upon our arrival; because I cannot forget the sense of achievement when we successfully reconstructed the scene from faint clues in a criminal case; and more importantly, because I cannot forget the grateful gaze of the families of the deceased. I want to gently say, I am a forensic medicine professional, and I am proud of my profession. Of course, as a forensic medicine professional, I am very aware of the various injustices faced by this profession today. I cannot change the opinions of everyone in the world, but what I want to do is use this blog to help more people understand this profession and the people who practice it. Inevitably, I will share some cases that have happened around me here, but of course, due to legal reasons, I can only tell some past stories. For the protection of the parties involved in the cases, I will also have to fictionalize names and locations. I don’t know what kind of thoughts these stories will bring to people—bloodshed? Thrills? Or something unbelievable? All of this is beyond my prediction and control. What I can do is faithfully recreate our lives and our experiences. I am not sure how the general public will react to encountering bloody photos, so let’s start with a narrative. This book is divided into several major sections, including "Criminal Cases," "Toxicology Cases," "Medical Cases," "Civil Cases," "Firearm Cases," "Disaster Cases," and "Construction Worker Cases," and consists of 23 independent, stylistically diverse stories such as "A Rape Case," "Mother’s Love," "Pressure," "The Serpent’s Curse," "Chaos," "Blazing Flames," "Silicosis," and "Strange Dreams."