Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 1, Episode 12 - Dying to Be Young - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A vibrant woman in her 50s goes to bed but never wakes up.
Feeling fine one minute, then dead in bed the next. NARRATOR: And the deeper Dr. G digs, the more bewildered she
becomes. It bothers me if I don't know what happened. NARRATOR: Is this death the mystery
that even Dr. G can't solve? Then, a 60-year-old carnival worker rides off into the darkness after a night of drinking
and is never seen alive again. Oh, gosh. NARRATOR: Will the truth behind his death cast doubt on
evidence gathered at the scene? I don't believe anybody until I get my findings and I see what fits.
NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries, shocking revelations. These are the everyday cases of "Dr. G, Medical Examiner."
[MUSIC PLAYING] To 53-year-old Sandy Gromlich, her hometown of Orlando, Florida, is a virtual playground, a place
to indulge in a carefree, child-like approach to life that warms the hearts of those close to her,
especially her husband Alan. She made me feel great as a person. Everything about her was what I was looking for.
NARRATOR: But on a dreary Monday morning in April of 2004, Sandy is anything but carefree.
While picking up a new car from a dealer, she begins to argue with the salesman and erupts into a fit of rage.
It's an event that underscores a sharp change in Sandy's personality that has been manifesting
over the previous few months. She was really getting stressed out a lot. She'd be irritable.
And a lot of times, she will be looking for something and she couldn't find it. Then she'd really get upset about it.
NARRATOR: The next day Alan rises early and heads off to work, careful not to wake his sleeping wife.
Later that morning, he phones from work. But it's not Sandy who picks up the phone.
ALAN: It was my neighbor answered the phone. I thought I had the wrong number at first.
She asked me if I could come home. I said, why? You know? And she just said, just come on home.
NARRATOR: Worried and confused, Alan heads straight home. When he arrives, an ambulance and a police cruiser
are parked outside. There is a deputy in the front yard and everything. And he started telling me that he had some bad news for me.
NARRATOR: The deputy tells Alan that his wife Sandy is dead. I felt like I just wanted to scream and yell.
I couldn't do anything. I just-- you know, I says, well, I need to see her. He took me in house.
She was laying n the bed, just like she was sleeping. I just went into shock, just about.
I don't know. I mean, I just couldn't believe it. NARRATOR: And Alan isn't the only one who considers
his wife's demise a mystery. The morgue's field investigators find no clues that even
begin to explain the death. DEAN SMITH: Non-smoker, non-drinker, takes no drugs.
There is nothing suspicious at the scene. It's just a sudden, unexpected death. NARRATOR: Sudden and unexplained, the death of Sandy
Gromlich becomes the business of Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Jan Garavaglia, better known as Dr. G.
This morning, we have a 53-year-old woman. No medical history, no major complaints.
Nothing really to go on, except the circumstances of death, of just feeling fine one minute and dead
in bed the next. NARRATOR: But the report does give Dr. G a picture of Sandy's final night.
She goes to bed with a hat on, to cover her ear and head and to prevent the AC from hitting her.
And she wears plastic teeth covers to prevent her from grinding her teeth. I used to have that problem.
NARRATOR: Nothing seems unusual until she reads about something that happened after Sandy fell asleep.
At 2:30 AM, Sandy's husband, Alan, is awakened by an odd sound. [COUGHING] ALAN: I heard a noise.
She was coughing or something. And I wasn't sure what it was. I was still half asleep.
I thought she was snoring. NARRATOR: Dr. G theorizes that the sound Alan heard at 2:30 AM
may have been Sandy's dying breath, a small piece of information that could indicate
the exact time of her death. Supposedly, he just left for work. And when a-- I don't know.
He probably didn't know she was probably already dead. NARRATOR: As she continues the exam,
Dr. G finds no bruises or injuries. No anterior wrist scars, no vascular scars. Nostrils dry, no vomitus or blood in the mouth.
NARRATOR: Given the peculiar circumstances of Sandy's death, she isn't surprised that the external exam
produces no leads. OK. We ready? You took her picture? NARRATOR: It's during the internal exam
that she expects to find the cause of Sandy's death. Dr. G uses a Y incision to cut through the chest
and expose the abdominal cavity. Her blood is kind of clotted, but it looks postmortem.
And the heart is 350. The rest of her concerns don't look so bad. NARRATOR: As the internal exam progresses,
an unusual scenario is taking shape. Dr. G can find nothing to explain Sandy's death.
Yeah, we're not finding much, unfortunately. NARRATOR: Of the nearly 6,000 cases that are referred
to the morgue each year, less than 1% fail to reveal the cause of death. Will Sandy Gromlich be one of these cases?
Coming up, Dr. G embarks on one of the longest investigations of her career. It was just getting to be a mystery
why this woman just died. NARRATOR: And later, a toppled bike, a dead body, no witnesses.
What or who killed William Manning? When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. [MUSIC PLAYING]
After performing a complete physical autopsy on 53-year-old Sandy Gromlich, Dr. G still
doesn't know what killed her. The lack of clues is disheartening for Alan Gromlich, Sandy's husband,
who desperately hopes to find an explanation behind his wife's sudden death. I needed some kind of answer, the cause her death.
And it wasn't helping me not knowing what the problem was. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: With the physical autopsy complete,
Dr. G turns to the microscope. Sometimes we find things under the microscope that we don't expect.
So you certainly have to do complete microscopic examination. NARRATOR: Tissue samples taken by Dr. G during the autopsy
are mounted on slides by the morgue's laboratory for further investigation. She is especially interested in the samples of Sandy's heart.
I put in maybe 20, 30 slides of just her heart, because that's one area that can cause you to die suddenly.
NARRATOR: But after hours of scrutiny on a microscopic level, Sandy's heart yields no clues.
For Dr. G, it's another dead end. There is only one other avenue left that might provide some answers--
the toxicological screening. I was hoping toxicology would give us the answer, because I
didn't have the answer. NARRATOR: But to Dr. G's surprise, not one suspicious substance is found in Sandy's system.
It was just getting to be a mystery why this woman just died. NARRATOR: Dr. G now faces a difficult choice.
Leave the case open, or declare Sandy Gromlich's death a mystery forever. I want to know what happened.
It bothers me if I don't know what happened. I feel-- I guess, in a way, I do feel like I'm--
I don't want to say I'm failing. But I want the right answer! I don't-- I can live with the fact if I don't get the answer,
but I have to put all my effort into getting the answer. NARRATOR: Before making her decision,
she phones Sandy's husband to discuss the prospect of declaring the case undetermined,
and to see if he can provide any insights into her death. What she hears is a man who is still very much in love.
ALAN: It was fate. I know it was. You know, it was like destiny, that we were supposed to meet.
I don't know. I just-- we were there for each other all the time. I mean, she was worried about me if I got sick.
And we both were so close to each other. We loved each other. It's hard to explain.
I mean, I'd take a half hour saying good night to her, just giving her a kiss, you know?
DR. G: He is very much in love with his wife. And all of a sudden, she was plucked from him.
And that's hard enough. But when you don't know why he doesn't have her, it was very, very difficult for him.
I had to warn him, maybe we could just leave this undetermined. And he couldn't.
He says, we're going to just keep working and working. And at that point, you just know that he just--
he needs an answer. NARRATOR: Dr. G decides to keep the case open and to continue talking to Alan, her only remaining lead.
The decision soon pays off. In a series of phone calls and face-to-face meetings
over a period of weeks, Dr. G begins to uncover surprising new information never reported in the field investigator's dossier.
I think he started thinking about what she was like before she died. And he was telling me stories about how normally,
she was a very sweet woman. And then she would have these outbursts. And in fact, that day, she was having
crying outbursts for no reason just picking up their car that they had bought. And, you know, the man at the dealership really
didn't know how to deal with her. NARRATOR: And mood swings are only the tip of the iceberg.
ALAN: And she had headaches, too. She had insomnia. She couldn't sleep at night.
She'd lay on her lounge chair and couldn't go to bed for two or three hours. NARRATOR: Then, while examining one of Sandy's photos
during one of Alan's visits to the morgue, Dr. Jean makes a chilling discovery. DR. G: I said, you know, her hair
looks so full in this picture. And yet, it didn't look that full at autopsy. He goes, oh, yeah, her hair.
She was losing her hair. NARRATOR: Losing it so fast, says Alan, that Sandy started wearing a wig.
But it's Alan's next recollection that proves most disturbing of all. He goes, you know, a few weeks prior to her dying,
she was having heart palpitations. NARRATOR: It's a stunning revelation that Alan
thought nothing of at the time. I just thought it was some kind of normal thing,
because I started to have them, too. NARRATOR: Alan then claimed that his own heart palpitations
stopped when Sandy died. To Dr. G, Sandy's strange assortment of seemingly minor and disconnected symptoms
are nothing short of a revelation. Mood swings, insomnia, hair loss, and heart palpitations
can be the result of a hormonal imbalance. To Alan, the theory that Sandy may have been physically unwell
seems impossible. He insists that Sandy's health was excellent. He's saying, you know, she's really healthy.
She's a really healthy woman. There's nothing wrong with her. NARRATOR: As Alan elaborates on his wife's exceedingly healthy
lifestyle, he inadvertently reveals a clue that could break the case wide open. Sandy took a wide variety of vitamins
and dietary supplements daily. I go, oh. So we all take supplements of some type.
Of lot of us take vitamins or-- and then he starts talking more about these supplements.
And I said, oh, how many supplements did she take? And he said, a lot. NARRATOR: A lot turns out to be over 40 each day.
20 in the morning, 20 in the evening, and maybe some at lunch. At this point, I was already convinced
that these supplements had to play a role, basically by the sheer volume. NARRATOR: Coming up, Dr. G becomes frustrated by the lack
of medical information about Sandy's supplements, and turns to an unlikely ally to crack the case.
In this case, I'd had to go back to her husband and start talking to him, because sometimes
they will give you a clue. NARRATOR: And later, a man riding his bike from a friend's house is found
dead on the side of the road. They looked at me and told me that he was gone. NARRATOR: Was his death an accident?
When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. After four months, Dr. G has made a breakthrough in the case
of 53-year-old Sandy Gromlich. She now knows that Sandy was taking over 40 dietary supplements daily.
And she suspects that one or more of them contributed to the hair loss, mood swings, heart palpitations, and-- perhaps
ultimately-- her death. Now, the only question left is which one. More than half the US adult population consumes some kind
of nutritional supplements, from basic herbal extracts to human growth hormones.
But for such a large industry, there is little federal regulation, strict testing, or evaluation
that traditional drugs must adhere to. That leaves Dr. G with no one place to turn to find information on the 40 substances
that Sandy Gromlich was taking. So she and Alan decide to proceed on their own. Their first task?
Determine exactly what supplements Sandy was taking and where they came from. Alan begins by going through receipts.
As he does, he finds that Sandy had been spending over $200 a month on supplements, purchasing many of them online.
She's getting some of this stuff from another country you can't even get here. It's outlawed here.
NARRATOR: Finally, after months of research, one supplement begins to stand out--
DHEA. DHEA, often referred to as the mother hormone, is produced naturally in the human body
and reaches peak levels in our 20s, then gradually decreases as we age. It's a naturally occurring substance in your body.
It's the precursor to making estrogen and testosterone. NARRATOR: Since physical maladies accelerate as DHEA
declines in the body, some scientists have speculated that DHEA dropoffs may be responsible for many age-related illnesses
in recent years. Some supplement manufacturers have offered DHEA as a new fountain of youth remedy
that they suggest may help prevent everything from obesity to heart disease, and even aging itself.
Apparently, Sandy Gromlich believed exactly that. Sunny Florida! ALAN: She thought it would help her age
and keep wrinkles down and live a lot longer. The stuff sounded pretty good. I mean, I want to stay young, too.
NARRATOR: But while Alan's and Dr. G's DHEA research turns up numerous ads and articles
praising the supplement, they find little information on its negative side effects.
ALAN: I looked for five or six months for some of them. I couldn't find anything.
You can find all the hype that tells you how great they are, but it was really hard finding any good data on,
what are the side effects? NARRATOR: What she does find is anecdotal evidence that larger
doses of DHEA, especially when taken in combination with other dietary supplements, may actually have serious side
effects, many of the very symptoms that Sandy suffered in the months prior to her death.
DR. G: We found something that talked about a man who was fine, not known to have any heart problems,
and started to get rushed to a hospital because of some heart arrhythmias and palpitations.
They actually took him off the DHEA and they went away. They actually, then, to see if they'd come back,
put him back on it. And they did. And the heart arrhythmias came back. NARRATOR: Doctors know that substances like DHEA
can actually influence the contraction of the heart muscle by causing abnormal electrical signals.
It's been suggested by some experts that when DHEA is taken in large amounts, especially in combination with other dietary compounds,
it may trigger the heart to beat chaotically and ineffectively. Such an arrhythmia can be fatal, even the first time it occurs.
DR. G: If you really delve into DHEA, it is irritable to the heart. It's a loud one.
NARRATOR: Apparently, Sandy and her husband Alan-- who took DHEA as well-- both complained of heart irregularities
while using the supplement. But Dr. G's suspicion that Sandy's death may have been
caused by taking large amounts of DHEA chronically will remain a theory until she can prove whether Sandy had
abnormal levels of the hormone in her system at the time of her death. She asks the toxicology lab to recheck Sandy's blood.
The tests come back, but they are not abnormal. DR. G: It was negative. The toxicology was negative.
But the problem is those results may not be accurate. NARRATOR: The lab informs Dr. G that Sandy's post-mortem blood
samples have degraded too much to be able to detect DHEA, even if the hormone was in her system at a high level
at the time of her death. So we're left with we're not really sure, but medicine doesn't always have an answer.
The science isn't always there to back you up. And just because the science isn't there
doesn't mean I can't believe it, because the circumstances are also telling me what's going on here.
So there is definitely an art to medicine. ALAN: Sandy with her t-shirt on. You don't see that very often in December.
ALAN: That's for sure. [WHOOPING] NARRATOR: Despite the lack of any concrete findings
in the investigation of the death of Sandy Gromlich, Dr. G believes that she has a strong enough circumstantial
case to explain what happened to Sandy on the night of her death. In the pursuit of youth and health,
Sandy becomes obsessed with dietary supplements. It started out maybe 5, 10 tablets a day, you know?
Then it got up to 40, about. NARRATOR: One of the supplements she consumes daily, at seven times the recommended dosage,
is the hormone DHEA. She was taking very, very large amounts of it. ALAN: She couldn't swallow them.
She always had a hard time swallowing any kind of pill, so she would crush them up with pliers.
NARRATOR: Soon, Sandy is suffering from hair loss, insomnia, heart palpitations, and mood swings.
All of these symptoms are in evidence on the last day of her life. That evening, Sandy takes another large dose
of DHEA, along with many other dietary supplements. While Dr. G cannot be certain, she suspects
that as Sandy slept that night, the excessive amounts of DHEA-- possibly in combination with other supplements--
finally take their toll on Sandy's heart. Under the influence of DHEA and other compounds,
the normal contractions of Sandy's heart muscle are compromised. Rhythmic heartbeats become chaotic constrictions.
And as a result, blood is not pumped. [MUSIC PLAYING] Her body and brain are starved of oxygen
and Sandy begins to die. At 2:30 AM, Alan is awakened when Sandy makes an unusual noise in her sleep.
It is likely her last breath. ALAN: She evidently had passed away that morning when
she made that coughing noise. NARRATOR: For Alan, it is a painful farewell. But the knowledge serves as a warning
about the lifestyle both he and his wife were leading. Your body is a beautiful thing.
It regulates itself most of the time. And we don't need to be pumping in massive quantities
of supplements. NARRATOR: Most importantly, Alan credits Dr. G with helping him finally close the book on the most tragic and heartbreaking
episode of his life. She's gone out of her way to help me out, to try to find some kind of closure for her.
I felt that I was her last physician. And if he needed to talk to me about her and about
what happened, that he could call me anytime. NARRATOR: Eight months after Sandy
died, Dr. G and Alan meet in person to discuss the case once again. Hi, Mr. Gromlich, how are you?
Nice to see you. Now, can I prove that she died from this? You understand I can't.
Right. But I have to go with the preponderance of the evidence. Probable cardiac arrhythmia due to excessive supplement use.
Just as long as you know that I can't prove it. But I think some things, you just can't prove in life.
But yet you just kind of know in your heart that it's what it is. That's the way I feel about it.
I mean, it-- DR. G: The symptoms and the preponderance of evidence really point to a cardiac arrhythmia.
We have to kind of read in between the lines a little. It's a little bit of a leap of faith, but we--
I think it's helping her husband cope with this, to understand that this is most likely the explanation.
ALAN: I still cry every day, really. But by finding this stuff, I think it's going to give me
some kind of closure. I know Dr. G has really helped a lot on that. I think if you never know, it's difficult to move on.
And I think, at least, that part can be settled down for him. And he can get on with the grieving and going on.
NARRATOR: Coming up, a dead body is discovered by the side of a road. It appears to be a straightforward case,
until Dr. G makes a shocking discovery. What do you think about this break? NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
A steamy summer evening in June. A perfect time in Orlando to share a few beers with friends on the porch.
60 years old and homeless, part-time carnival worker, William Manning, doesn't have his own porch.
But he's got a few friends who enjoy his company. They know him simply as Shorty.
We're at my neighbor's house. And Shorty was there to visit him. And I was there.
We're all socializing, had a few beers. He was doing his laundry. And we're just talking, socializing.
CINDI: Everybody loved to see Shorty come in, because he was always so sweet and in a good mood.
He'd make you feel better if you had a bad day. NARRATOR: Four hours later, the get-together is winding down.
Shorty, a lifelong alcoholic, has had quite a bit to drink. NORMA: Must have been about 10:30 or 11 o'clock.
I told him I was going in to go to bed. I tried to get him to come in and lie down on the couch.
I said, Shorty, if you want to spend the night at my house, you're more than welcome to sleep on my sofa.
But he decided he wanted to go. NARRATOR: Insisting on visiting another friend, Shorty hops on his primary mode of transport, his bicycle.
He rode his bike at least 10 miles, if not more, every day. He loved that bicycle.
NARRATOR: With his laundry loaded into the basket, Shorty pedals off into the dark.
An hour later, the wail of an ambulance cuts through the night. A neighbor who lives just around the corner from
the get-together has called 911 after making a frightening discovery-- a bicycle lying in a ditch and nearby, a man's body.
As EMS arrives, the woman recognizes the man. It's Shorty and he's dead. CINDI: They looked at me and told me that he was gone.
That was their words. He's gone. And then I just couldn't believe it. I just-- probably like a shock thing.
I just didn't know what to do. NARRATOR: Awakened by the commotion, several of Shorty's friends from the get-together that evening
come outside, where they learn of the news. I'm thinking no, no. This can't possibly-- this is not true.
There ain't nothing wrong with him. I just saw him. I just left him. And the next thing you know, he's dead.
NARRATOR: The scene unfolds with the turmoil inherent in most death investigations-- the police, morgue field
investigators, and onlookers coming and going, all with questions but few answers
as to how Shorty died. And one other question lingers as well. Did Shorty have any family?
My neighbors were coming over and we were trying to figure out how to get in touch with, like--
if he had any family or anything. Me and another neighbor was the only two people
that had his name and address for his mom and daughter and everything in New York.
NARRATOR: Finally, around 1:00 AM, Shorty's only child, Linda, receives the news.
LINDA: The phone rang. And someone was on the other end of the line, saying that they needed to talk to me.
And the woman on the other end of the line said that she knew my dad, and that they
think that they just found him in the ditch down the road. NARRATOR: Within two hours, the police
and medical examiner's office wrap up their on-scene investigations. And Shorty's body, along with their reports,
are delivered to Dr. G at District 9. OK, so we have a 60-year-old man who has been an alcoholic
for years, like 30 years. Initially, Shorty's case appears straightforward. A bike, alcohol, a deadly fall.
But because no known person witnessed his death, Dr. G can't be sure what happened.
His death might have been an accident, but it also could have been from natural causes, such as a heart
attack or even a homicide. I have to worry that-- did he fall off his bike? History of drinking, maybe he fell off.
Maybe he didn't see the culvert. Maybe he just drove into it. Or could he have been hit by a car?
Could be an assault. NARRATOR: While the cause of Shorty's fall remains a mystery, one detail about its aftermath
appears to be clear. According to morgue field investigators, his body was found at the top of the cement culvert,
or drainage ditch, 10 feet away from his bicycle. The position of a body at the time of death
offers vital clues that often help Dr. G determine how a person died. In Shorty's case, the separation of bike and body
suggests two things. One, that he managed to get out of the ditch. And two, that he did not die instantly.
My investigator, my-- the detective that worked the case, hypothesized that he just fell off of the--
fell off his bicycle into the culvert, and then crawled up out of the culvert. Possible.
We can go with that hypothesis. But I have to make sure all the forensic evidence fits that.
NARRATOR: She will get her first look in the external exam. OK. So he's got this kind of unkempt mustache.
And I'm really hungry. Ooh, nice and dirty hands. Dirt under the nails. A lot of dirt under the nails.
A little, tiny kind of ecchymosis, a little bleeding under the skin on his right arm.
Dirt under his arms. I got to get on that side. OK, let's clean his face up. OK.
So pretty much his whole body from the neck down is without trauma. Here, I don't see-- he has no surgical scars, no anterior
scars. NARRATOR: For Dr. G, the absence of trauma on the lower extremities means one thing for certain.
Shorty was not hit by a car. When a person is struck by an automobile, typically it is the legs and hips that
sustain most of the trauma. If he had been hit with an automobile on his bicycle,
we would expect a lot more trauma to the lower half of his body. NARRATOR: But while Shorty's lower
extremities are without injury, Shorty's head is another story. Oh, yeah, he's got kind of a step
down from a skull fracture. NARRATOR: Shorty's head injury is obvious, but what remains unclear is what caused him to hit his head.
You never know. We don't know exactly what happened. We're just assuming, since the bike's not too badly hurt.
He doesn't have any other trauma. We're assuming he fell off. He is drunk. But I have to make sure something
else didn't happen to him. When anybody dies of trauma and they're just found outside,
we just have to make sure there is nothing sinister happened, and that the pieces all fit together.
NARRATOR: To get to the bottom of things, Dr. G must investigate the body further with the internal exam.
She makes the Y incision and inspects Shorty's organs one by one for signs of anything amiss.
She doesn't have to look far. His liver is a little yellow. It's not completely normal.
NARRATOR: She finds evidence of a life of alcohol abuse and smoking. His lungs are all black and muddled from the smoking.
Lot of adhesions. Broke his rib. It looks-- oh, yeah, that's an old rib fracture.
He's fallen down before. He's got two old rib fractures here that are healing. That's consistent with an alcoholic.
Liver, 1500. NARRATOR: However, she finds nothing potentially deadly within his body.
So these are good. NARRATOR: Until she examines his kidneys. What has he got here.
I'm a little worried he might have cancer. As soon as I saw it, I could tell that it was a cancer.
3 1/2 by 3 centimeters. NARRATOR: Dr. G will examine samples of the tumor under the microscope for further analysis.
But from the looks of it, the cancer was not lethal, at least not that night. The cancer was confined to the kidney.
That wouldn't be something that killed him now. It could have killed him later, if he
didn't do anything about it. So that was always-- that's a surprise finding. NARRATOR: In order to determine Shorty's alcohol level
on the night he died, Dr. G collects ocular fluid and blood for toxicology tests.
And then she turns to examine the inside of Shorty's head injury. Wow. He really hit hard.
He's just got kind of-- what we call comminuted fractures. There's like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5--
1, 2, 3, 4, 5. At least six pieces of-- pieces of bone that are separated from each other.
He's fractured his bones, his frontal bones. And he's actually lacerated some of his brain tissue
with these fractures. NARRATOR: This apparently fatal trauma raises a perplexing question.
I guess the only remarkable thing is the walking aspect after he fell. That's amazing with that brain.
NARRATOR: If walking or crawling with these injuries appears highly unlikely, what Dr. G discovers
next is utterly impossible. Oh, my god. NARRATOR: Coming up, another surprising discovery
deepens the mystery surrounding Shorty's death and challenges Dr. G's faith in evidence gathering.
I don't believe anybody until I get my findings and I see what fits. NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
Bicycling in the dark after a night of drinking, transient William "Shorty" Manning
is found dead by a neighbor. According to the investigator's report, his body was discovered at the top of a concrete culvert,
his bike at the bottom. But in the autopsy, Dr. G discovers severe fractures in Shorty's skull, raising serious questions
about how he managed to get out of the culvert before he died. It is a mystery Dr. G will be hard
pressed to explain, especially after what she finds next. DR. G: Oh, my god. What do you think about this break?
He's got a fractured neck. We're going to have to look at his spinal cord, because it wouldn't make sense that he
crawled up out of that hole. NARRATOR: With the organs removed from Shorty's body,
Dr. G has a clear view of his spine from the inside. And what she finds astonishes her.
His spinal cord, the soft tissue bundle of nerves that rest within the bones of the spinal column,
is nearly severed. And the injury is at an especially critical position in Shorty's spine--
his neck. DR. G: He had a fracture at C4, at the fourth cervical vertebrae. So from the top of the head, counting down four,
that's where it fractured. If you get an injury severe that actually hurts the spinal cord
high enough above-- C4 or above, you would be a quadriplegic. NARRATOR: For Dr. G, Shorty's body
position at the time of his death defies explanation. That's not how he got out of the culvert.
Just unbelievable. I know, it's unbelievable that he could get out of that culvert after that.
Based on what I saw at C4, he really could not have crawled up with that injury.
NARRATOR: At least the riddle doesn't affect Dr. G's basic conclusions. Shorty died of two injuries, brain
trauma and a lacerated spinal cord at the C4 vertebrae. As for the position of his body at the time of death,
it remains a nagging mystery for Dr. G. The apparent discrepancy does not sit well
with Shorty's daughter, either. LINDA: I wanted to know more about what happened,
and if somebody had done something to him to hurt him, or somebody moved him themselves or something
like that, you know? It seemed odd. Did-- did somebody try to help him, bring him out of the ditch
or whatever? Because he couldn't have got out there himself. That was-- that was a little tough.
NARRATOR: Then, several weeks later, the woman who discovered Shorty's body on the night
of his death offers new information not gathered at the death scene. Information that finally solves the medical mystery of how
Shorty got out of the ditch. I got new information to say what I was originally told
is not the truth. NARRATOR: At last, Dr. G can explain the whole story of Shorty's death.
That night, Shorty drinks heavily at his friend's house. Toxicology tests put Shorty's blood alcohol level at 0.3,
more than three times the legal limit, and enough to require hospitalization in some people.
Shorty's motor skills are shot. His vision is blurred. His judgment is impaired.
Rather than sleep off the alcohol, Shorty hits the road on his bicycle. But in just a few yards, he turns a corner.
He likely loses his balance. The load of laundry in his basket probably magnifies the swerve.
He plummets into a culvert and onto the concrete below, headfirst. The impact shatters Shorty's skull.
Pieces of bone lacerate his brain. The fall also wreaks havoc on his C4 vertebrae.
DR. G: He hit really hard. His fracture was so severe that he actually did have a tear, partial transection of the spinal cord itself.
NARRATOR: The injury stops his breathing and Shorty dies. Approximately an hour later, a neighbor
discovers Shorty's body not in the yard, but in the culvert beside her home. When EMS arrive, they are the ones
to pull him out of the ditch in an effort to revive him. Later, police arrive and find the body lying in the yard
where EMS left him. But because they never see him in the culvert, their final report states incorrectly
that Shorty was found at the top of the culvert, not in it. This small but critical misinterpretation
is passed to the medical examiner's field investigator, and, in turn, to Dr. G. The eyewitness, the person who found him, said, no.
He was at the bottom of the culvert and he was brought up. And that makes a lot more sense.
And that fits what I found at autopsy. NARRATOR: The scene of a death is full of people
exchanging information-- witnesses, detectives, police officers, EMS, and the medical examiner's field investigator,
all observing different things at different times. With roughly 1,500 deaths investigated by Doctor G's
office alone each year, minor miscommunications and discrepancies are inevitable.
DR. G: EMS, my investigators, the detectives, the eyewitnesses are all telling me things.
What I have to do is take all that information and take it with a grain of salt.
I don't believe anybody until I get my findings and I see what fits. CINDI: I knew someday that my dad would die
and the cause of the death would be somehow related to his drinking problems. Knowing now that it was--
that he actually did die in the ditch, and that he was just brought up to help him,
it is good to know that. But there's nothing really nice about losing someone, you know?
[MUSIC PLAYING]

A healthy 53-year-old woman is found dead in bed. After performing an autopsy and taking blood and tissue samples, Dr. G cannot find the cause of death.

A Florida medical examiner takes viewers through puzzling cases while explaining procedures and conclusions.

Brief Summary

Dr. G investigates the mysterious deaths of Sandy Gromlich and William Manning, revealing the dangers of excessive supplement use and miscommunication in death investigations.

Key points

The Mystery of Sandy Gromlich. A vibrant woman suddenly dies, leaving her husband and Dr. G searching for answers.
Dr. G's Investigation. Dr. G embarks on a challenging investigation into Sandy's unexplained death.
The Role of Supplements. Dr. G discovers Sandy was taking over 40 dietary supplements daily, raising concerns.
A Heartbreaking Farewell. Alan reflects on his love for Sandy and the tragic circumstances of her death.
Shorty's Tragic Death. William 'Shorty' Manning is found dead after a night of drinking and biking.
Dr. G's Investigation. Dr. G uncovers shocking details about Shorty's death, raising more questions than answers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It bothers me if I don't know what happened.

Dr. G's emotional investment in the case.

0:31WatchMay 18, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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