Autopsy site moves to U. Hospital
Published Jan. 19, 2007
About two weeks ago, Boone County's deceased citizens began arriving on campus when the county started using its new morgue and autopsy facility in University Hospital.
The Boone County Commission in 2004 approved the move from the old facility located on St. Charles Avenue.
The old facility, which had been used since 1997, was attached to the home of former medical examiner Jo Fountain. Valerie Rao, who was the medical examiner at the time the move was approved, said in a previous Maneater report that the morgue did not contain much of the equipment she liked to use and was too small.
Interim County Medical Examiner Eddie Adelstein, who is a professor of pathology and anatomical sciences in the MU School of Medicine, said the old morgue's facilities were too small for the growing city.
"The old morgue started out as a sort of private morgue because of the fact that, initially, Columbia was sort of a small town and there wasn't really an excessive demand for medical examiner facilities," he said. "In today's more litigious society, you have a need for a more secure and more safe morgue."
Adelstein said more than $1 million was spent on the new morgue. He said it contains special rooms to autopsy bodies that are contaminated with diseases or bodies that are already decomposed. He said the storage facilities for bodies were also expanded.
"You want to have a good ventilating system so the smell doesn't get into the other rooms of the hospital," he said. "The people working here are the same, but the facility is quite a bit more attractive."
Adelstein said having the new facility located on campus would help both the university and the county to be more effective. He said that during some autopsies, students would be able to observe and learn from the process.
"I think that the situation was that the department chairman thought that it would be within the best interest of the county and the teaching institution to have the facility incorporated into the hospital," he said. "It still remains somewhat separate. Not everyone has keys."
Adelstein said if someone were to get stuck in the morgue but is not yet actually dead, he or she would not have to worry because the door doesn't lock from the inside.