Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 2, Episode 21 - Deadly Business - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: It's Doctor G's first case ever as a medical examiner.
This is my first real job. I mean, it was a little scary to go into that. NARRATOR: And suddenly, she's thrust
into a gruesome, high profile investigation involving 44 bodies. We had some that were mummified,
some that were skeletonized, some that were decomposing. NARRATOR: And then a Vietnam veteran died suddenly in bed.
Will his psychological condition provide clues to his cause of death? For years, he was being treated for post-traumatic
stress syndrome. NARRATOR: But his grieving widow thinks his symptoms may have been misdiagnosed.
I had thought that David had had a couple of heart attacks, and I wanted somebody to pay attention to me.
NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries, shocking revelations-- these are the everyday cases of "Dr. G, Medical Examiner."
Yeah, I never go anywhere. OK, it takes a lot of guts to appear on national TV with this thing, but I have no pride.
NARRATOR: Multiple homicides, tragic accidents, mysterious deaths. Well, I can't make heads or tails.
This brain is even worse than most. NARRATOR: As chief medical examiner for the District 9
morgue in Orlando, Florida, Dr. Jan Garavaglia has gained national respect for her ability to handle
complex, high profile cases. Basically, you know, you make or break your career on,
are you honest? What is the truth? What do I know and what do I don't know? How can I prove what I know?
You just have to consistently work on that. NARRATOR: Today, she is one of America's
top forensic pathologists. Yeah, let's put a mask on. NARRATOR: But there was a time when
she had to prove herself in this unforgiving high stakes world. So I'm not doing Tuesday.
NARRATOR: This is the story of her very first case, the story of how she became Dr. G, medical examiner.
Earning the right to practice as a licensed medical examiner was no small feat for Dr. G. It required
determination, resolve, and nine years of rigorous postgraduate education. JAN GARAVAGLIA: Four years of college, four years
of medical school, then four to five years of pathology, and then another year of forensic pathology.
I trained in Miami, which was just a hotbed of homicides back then. NARRATOR: And in 1988, this intense training
finally paid off. Dr. G got her first real job as an ME at the Duval County Medical Examiner's Office
in Jacksonville, Florida. Well, it seemed like a very nice office. My husband at the time thought that he
would like to move up there. We thought it would be a nice place to live. NARRATOR: But then two stunning events
changed her life from perfectly planned to completely unpredictable. One concerned a personal first.
As, you know, these things happened, I became pregnant. NARRATOR: In addition to dealing with her first pregnancy,
Dr. G was about to receive some shocking news concerning her new job in Jacksonville.
The news came suddenly one afternoon, just three weeks before her start date. I was sitting at my desk in Miami trying to get some cases
out, and somebody came up to me and said, you may want to reconsider going to Jacksonville.
They're going to have a mess when you get up there. And I go, why? And they said, oh, you need to look at the news.
NARRATOR: According to the news article, the Duval County Medical Examiner's Office,
her new employer, had just embarked on an astonishing investigation. Several weeks before, two state officials
on a routine inspection made a gruesome discovery at the Howell Morning Glory Chapel, a funeral home
in a low income neighborhood in Jacksonville. And they noticed that there are two bodies in a hearse that shouldn't be there,
that appear to be rotting. NARRATOR: The corpses were clearly decomposed, and they suspected there could be many
more inside the house itself. You know, funeral homes have certain rules. They're supposed to either embalm the body
or refrigerate that body. So this was a huge problem. Who were these people? Did their families know they were here?
You know, what was going on here? NARRATOR: Officials immediately called the Sheriff's
office to notify them of this bizarre and disturbing situation. And then they elicit the state attorney, who, like, what
do we do with these bodies? Well, whenever you have bodies, you know, who do you call?
You call the medical examiner. NARRATOR: Now authorities are counting on the local medical examiner's office
to fully investigate the scene. And that local office happens to be Dr. G's new employer.
The next day, the morgue's chief forensic investigator, Lou Eliopulos, leads the team on their first step
in the process-- conducting a thorough search of the funeral home, which is also where the funeral director, Lewis Howell,
lives with his wife. We were going to look in the ceilings. We were going to look in the walls and stuff
for any hidden bodies. NARRATOR: As investigators explore the premises, their worst fears are realized.
They find bodies strewn throughout various rooms in plain view, in Howell's office, hallways, and garage.
It appears that Lewis Howell had not been doing his job, burying or cremating all of the dead bodies left in his care.
He wasn't doing it for whatever reason. NARRATOR: Faded remains wrapped in plastic, limbs
festering under lime dust, some stuffed in caskets, two to a box. And in the kitchen--
We found a large woman, maybe 300 pounds, lying on a stretcher. And this was just a couple of feet from the counter
where food was prepared. You know, what I do everyday, I have to deal with dead bodies, and I treat everyone
with the utmost respect. And it's honestly disgusting to me that he would treat a dead body like that, that he would just
pretty much throw it in the corner and let it rot and pretty much just step over it every day.
NARRATOR: But the most shocking discovery lies behind the wall of a large closet.
They found what looked to be like a false wall. And when they broke into that, they found
many more bodies piled up. LOU ELIOPULOS: We had some that were mummified, some that were skeletonized, some that were decomposing,
some that were liquefied remains, some that hadn't been dead for very long. One of them was actually flattened like a pancake.
NARRATOR: Nine grueling hours, fighting the stench, the heat, and sheer disgust, the team uncovers 36 rotting bodies
and transports them all to the morgue. LOU ELIOPULOS: I remember never being more tired in my life
than that night when I drove home. NARRATOR: The Morning Glory case ignites outrage
across the country toward Lewis Howell, especially among those who feared their loved ones could
be among the recovered dead. A lot of them wanted him thrown in prison right then
and there because of these actions. NARRATOR: But shockingly, prosecutors' hands are tied.
There is no Florida law in 1988 against such horrifying neglect of the deceased.
They wanted to charge him with something, and they couldn't charge him just with the way
he treated the bodies. NARRATOR: Now they need to identify the victims in the hopes of proving that the man's actions were not
just abhorrent, but illegal. This will be Dr. G's first assignment as a medical examiner.
And I knew that was going to be a huge job. NARRATOR: A huge job for any medical examiner and especially
challenging for a rookie just embarking on her career. Coming up next, Dr. G could end up over her head
on her very first assignment. It was on TV. It was on the radio. It was on the newspapers.
My mom was in St. Louis, and she had heard about it. She was like, oh, no, look at the place you're going to.
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. Dr. G is only 31 years old. She's four months pregnant, and she's
about to begin her first real job as a medical examiner. But this is no typical first day of work.
Her new employer, the Duval County Medical Examiner's Office, has just become embroiled
in a huge national case. This is my first real job. It was mixed emotions. I mean, it was a little scary to go into that.
NARRATOR: Investigators have found 36 rotting bodies in the Howell Morning Glory Chapel.
And since then, they've uncovered some telling information about the funeral director, Lewis
Howell. For 10 years, Duval County has been paying Howell to provide funeral services to Jacksonville's poorest
residents. His fee? Up to $450 for every decedent. He was given money to bury these people.
Often, they were indigents. The county was giving him money to bury these people.
NARRATOR: This discovery gives prosecutors a vital lead. If Howell had been paid for burials
and had pocketed that money instead of doing his job, they could charge him with fraud and theft.
But to prove this, they need to identify the decomposed victims and match them against the list of people
Howell was paid to bury. JAN GARAVAGLIA: The identification was key because he could have said these were people who
never paid for their funeral, so I never did anything with them. NARRATOR: And there's another disturbing aspect to the case.
Investigators suspect that Howell might have further profited illegally by putting multiple bodies in the caskets
he did bury. JAN GARAVAGLIA: Is somebody visiting that grave thinking they're visiting someone, their loved one, and are they there?
Are they not there? Are they visiting multiple people? NARRATOR: To find out, investigators
ordered the exhumation of four caskets recently buried by Howell in a local cemetery.
Those caskets, too, are sent to the Jacksonville medical examiners. Dr. G now has her first opportunity to prove
her skills as a professional. As she enters the autopsy room, she quickly realizes that her new colleagues have been working
around the clock for the past three weeks and are desperate for her arrival. I think everybody else was kind
of burnt out in the office. And so I was the fresh blood. I was the calvary coming in.
NARRATOR: As a rookie ME, she expects to play a supporting role in this investigation.
Instead, she's given a critical role. The first day was the bombshell. NARRATOR: Her assignment?
Take charge of the four exhumed caskets. She must first determine if the caskets
contain multiple bodies. Then she must gather enough forensic evidence to identify them as people that Howell was paid to bury.
The state could then bring charges of fraud against Howell for pocketing the money he saved by improperly burying bodies.
And it was exciting. I mean, it was making national news. NARRATOR: But working in the media spotlight
on a high stakes forensics case was not a role Dr. G had envisioned for herself.
In fact, the idea of becoming a medical examiner never crossed her mind until late in her medical school career.
She began studying internal medicine and worked hard in medical school to become a physician.
But just one year into her residency, she came to a troubling realization. JAN GARAVAGLIA: I was OK at internal medicine,
and people-- my patients liked me. But I was just getting really burnt out. You got to do something you have a passion for that you like,
or life can seem really long. NARRATOR: She started searching for another specialty
in medicine that would inspire her. It was so fascinating, the forensic lectures.
So I decided to go ahead and go into pathology to do a forensic pathology. NARRATOR: But that meant she would have
to train for an additional six years for a job dealing with the dead that would pay far less
than working with patients. And people thought I was throwing away my medical career.
And my mother's like, you know, what are you doing? What are you going into? So you're not going to be a doctor anymore?
And I'm like, no, it's still a doctor. It's like Quincy. That was the only thing people knew back then.
NARRATOR: Worst of all were her own doubts about giving up her dream of helping sick people,
until she had a sudden revelation. I realized, you know, in a different way, you're helping people.
You're not helping the living. But you are giving a voice to the dead, and sometimes you can help the survivors cope and understand.
NARRATOR: Now the years of specialized training will finally count for something if she
can successfully give a voice to the dead in the Morning Glory case. If she can't, the man who mistreated them
may never be brought to justice. It's the moment of truth as Dr. G faces her first exhumed casket.
Immediately, she finds herself the center of attention. Exhumations are always interesting because they're
not that common. It always draws the crowd. It's like opening a present at Christmas.
You never know what you're going to find. NARRATOR: After a minute or so of pushing and pulling,
the lid finally cracks open. And the first thing I saw, I mean, it was kind of a mangled bit of mess.
NARRATOR: With the eye of a trained forensic pathologist, she takes a closer look at the remains.
But it doesn't take an expert to see right away that this coffin has not one or even two bodies
crammed inside. Howell had stuffed it with three. When you open a casket with, you know, multiple bodies,
that's anything but routine. NARRATOR: Dr. G spends the day opening the other three caskets
and removing their contents. Her final tally, a whopping eight bodies, and all of them heavily decomposed,
reduced essentially to skeletons. Now Dr. G must retrieve meaningful clues from these exhumed remains while under the scrutiny
of her new colleagues. Anybody that starts a new job, you don't want to be thought of as stupid and a fool.
So whatever little experience I had working with the skeletons, I was thrown into the frying pan.
And I had to learn quick. NARRATOR: The next day, Dr. G begins by arranging the first skeleton on an autopsy table
and carefully inspecting its condition. We just would slowly-- you know, what we're doing is documenting what we're seeing.
We're photographing what we're seeing. NARRATOR: But then, an object in the chest cavity
grabs Dr. G's attention. It's something she never encountered in all her years of training.
In fact, it's something that definitely does not belong in a human body. Coming up next, will the team be able to figure out
what this bizarre object is? Instead of a heart inside their chest cavity area, it's a mangled mess kind of just junk.
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. Investigators have recently discovered
44 corpses left to rot by funeral director Lewis Howell. Now as Dr. G begins her first case as a professional ME,
prosecutors are counting on her to identify enough victims to charge the man with fraud and grand theft.
The county had paper trails that they did pay him, and we had to prove that these people were still there.
NARRATOR: But now in her first autopsy as a professional medical examiner, Dr. G has made a baffling discovery.
She closely examines what lies inside the rib cage of this decedent. It's not an internal organ, but something far more disturbing.
Instead of a heart inside that chest cavity area, it's a mangled mess of kind of nesting material and weeds
and kind of just junk. NARRATOR: Dr. G and her new colleagues quickly determine that this bizarre clump of material
is, in fact, a rat's nest. The implications are staggering. Because no rat is getting into a sealed casket.
That body probably laid in this funeral home for a long time. NARRATOR: Ironically, the nest contains
useful forensic evidence-- newspaper scraps printed with the publication date. The newspapers were important to us
because at least it gave a rough time estimate as to when this person may have died and been
handled by a funeral director. So we were interested in that. NARRATOR: Dr. G's findings further confirm that this body
was improperly buried. Now she must ID the body as one that Howell was paid to bury.
She takes detailed measurements of the specific bones that can reveal identifying characteristics,
such as sex, race, height, and age. Certainly, the skull holds a lot of information for us.
Brow ridges are very prominent on men. Women tend to have much more delicate features.
They don't have the brow ridge. With the race, it tends to be the nasal aperture,
the shape of the orbits, the shape of the mandible and maxilla. NARRATOR: From this skull, she discovers that this victim
is a white male. Now the age is difficult sometimes. One of the things we'll look at are ends of ribs,
and we'll look at where your pubic bones go together, your pubic synthesis to see how much wear,
how much rigidity that they have. NARRATOR: From this man's bones, she can tell he didn't die young.
His bones are thin and fragile, typical of osteoporosis, the bone disease that plagues one in five men
and one in three women over the age of 50. Dr. G hopes this information-- the man's approximate age,
race, and medical history-- will be enough to determine his identity. The information goes straight to Sheri Blanton, an assistant
from the state attorney's office, later to become one of Dr. G's closest friends.
She handles the next step in the identification process-- comparing the profile to the list of decedents
Howell had been paid to bury. We had to take that list, and then we used our physical characteristics
of their bodies to match it up. Every time you found an identity and you could make a positive ID, it was a good feeling.
NARRATOR: As Dr. G continues to examine and document the remaining bodies exhumed from the caskets,
it becomes clear she's a natural born medical examiner. She wasn't afraid to ask questions.
She wasn't afraid to dissent. I think Dr. Garavaglia was incredible in that way.
She was extremely intelligent, and she was extremely fair and scientific. And I think that's all you can ask
for in a forensic pathologist. NARRATOR: In the end, Dr. G and her colleagues are able to identify the male skeleton in question,
along with 28 more of the 44 bodies discovered, enough for prosecutors to file criminal charges
against Lewis Howell. He was receiving city funds to cremate or bury these individuals.
And in fact, he didn't. NARRATOR: And now, after weeks of grueling exhumations and examinations, Dr. G and the entire investigative team
can replay the chain of events that led to the mistreatment of more than 40 human bodies.
In 1978, Lewis Howell wins a city contract to bury Jacksonville's poorest residents.
The city pays Howell $450 for each decedent, but instead of burying each body in its own coffin,
he accumulates them before interring several together in a single coffin. Meanwhile, he pockets the cash that he saves on coffins.
He was paid to do a job, and he did not perform that job, yet took the money. I think it's just pure greed.
I think some people rob Jiffy Marts, some people rob banks, and some people rob through the dead people that they handle.
NARRATOR: But Howell doesn't stop at burying multiple bodies in one casket. Sometimes he just doesn't bury them at all.
He decided to start stacking bodies in his closet, and when he was through, they were stacked up like cardboard.
NARRATOR: Howell's scam goes undetected for nearly 10 years, until one day, a routine inspection
finally brings him to light. Armed with the identifications, prosecutors charge Howell with six counts of grand theft and 36
misdemeanor counts of fraud. His possible maximum sentence-- 30 years. Howell eventually pleads guilty to three of the theft charges.
And although the funeral director ends up serving only 11 weeks in prison, Dr. G
is still glad that her first case ended in triumph. We fulfilled our duties to help the prosecution
to prove that there was a felony grand theft going on because these people were not disposed of.
NARRATOR: The case has also had a lasting impact on her life. Through it, she discovered what it
means to be a medical examiner. You never know in this job what's going to come your way.
You know, these truly weren't medical examiner cases, but they needed our help. And that's what I realized.
You know, this isn't just cause and manner of death. This is all sorts of problems people have.
And, you know, this is just on a grander scale. And I don't think I really understood
that until this case. It's not glamorous, you know, working on your feet all day,
being exposed to terrible smells, being exposed to infectious diseases, being exposed to nastiness, you know,
maggots squirming all over, popping, jumping at you. But it's really rewarding. And I love the way I can still use my medical knowledge.
It's just tremendously fulfilling. NARRATOR: Coming up next, a man dies suddenly in his bed,
and his grieving widow thinks the hospital may have missed some vital clues. I thought that David had had a couple of heart attacks,
that I wanted them to look for something different. NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
It's Saturday morning in Orlando, Florida, and the sleepy city is slowly waking up.
For many, weekends offer the perfect opportunity to relax or spend precious moments with loved ones.
But for Orange County chief medical examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia, this is one Saturday she won't
be spending with her family. Eric's not a big breakfast eater. We gotta really kind of like.
NARRATOR: That's because she's off to work. When Dr. G arrives at the District 9 morgue,
the first case on her full roster is already waiting. David Gilliam, a 56-year-old man in apparent good health,
died suddenly and unexpectedly at home just four hours earlier. Now his distraught wife, Tina, is desperate to know why.
Well, this guy-- this is kind of a strange story. He's 56. NARRATOR: Dr. G begins by reviewing the morgue
investigator's report to learn all she can about David and the circumstances surrounding his death.
By all accounts, David Gilliam was a loving and devoted husband, well-liked in his community.
He was a very, very generous person. I mean, sometimes I'd have to come home, make sure he didn't give the house away.
NARRATOR: The night of his death begins uneventfully. David and Tina, both tired from their busy work week,
head to bed early. He's been gone for a week on business. He's in bed with his wife.
What's wrong, honey? What's wrong? He just kind of reaches over to her, doesn't really say anything, and then vomits.
TINA: And I looked down. I said, David, what do you need? And his arm was kind of shaking, and I knew just immediately
that I was in trouble and that he was in trouble, but that I was alone and I didn't know what to do for him.
She immediately calls 911. I don't think he's breathing. Please, help. NARRATOR: The paramedics quickly arrive on the scene and attempt
to resuscitate David without success. They then rush him to a nearby hospital. Nobody was coming and saying anything,
and they were not working on him. And I knew at that moment. NARRATOR: David Gilliam is pronounced
dead in the emergency room. Cause of death, unknown. So what we want to know is, was there anything
else leading up to this? NARRATOR: As Dr. G reviews David's medical report, she learns that he had a history of high blood
pressure and high cholesterol. And that's not all. He hadn't been feeling well the week before.
NARRATOR: According to his wife, David was experiencing a disturbing symptom just a week before he died.
He's got some chest pain, which makes us think that he's maybe had a heart attack.
NARRATOR: But according to his medical history, David Gilliam had no known serious heart problems.
Then as she nears the end of the report, Dr. G stumbles across an interesting piece
of information, one that promises to open a precious window into David's life. For years, he was being treated for post-traumatic
stress syndrome. NARRATOR: Post-traumatic stress disorder is a debilitating condition that affects people who
have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, such as physical or sexual assault,
a violent accident, natural catastrophes, or military combat. What all of those events have in common
is the potential for a person to feel that their life is threatened or that their physical integrity
or psychological integrity is threatened. NARRATOR: Dr. G calls his wife to learn more
about how PTSD affected David. Tina tells her that as a young man, David served in the Vietnam War.
And he came home a changed person. David suffered from a range of PTSD symptoms,
including vivid flashbacks, increased irritability, emotional distance, sleep disturbances, and feelings
of anxiety and depression. Take your worst day on earth and magnify it by 10 times,
and that's how David lives every day. NARRATOR: But what Tina reveals next raises the stakes
in Dr. G's investigation. David, over the years, had chest pains quite often. He didn't really know what it was,
but that it felt like that he was just having a heart attack because he'd have so much pressure in his chest.
NARRATOR: But time after time, instead of treating him for a possible heart attack, David's doctors
would dismiss his symptoms as harmless and send him home. And they would say, no, you don't have any heart disease.
This is related to your post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they were just panic attacks.
NARRATOR: That's because a person in the throes of a panic attack may experience chest pains that can be easily
confused with a heart attack. JAN GARAVAGLIA: They feel like they're dying. They feel like they're having a heart attack.
It's not a pleasant thing to live through. NARRATOR: But now, with David's sudden and unexpected death,
Tina is beginning to question the doctor's diagnosis. She wanted to know, were these actually small heart attacks
that he was having all along? She was worried that they truly missed heart disease on him.
Even though that they listened, I just could not understand why that they wouldn't
run some different tests. NARRATOR: Now Tina is counting on Dr. G to tell her if David was misdiagnosed.
And if so, could his death have been prevented? We don't know, and we're not going to know
until we do the autopsy. NARRATOR: A quick glance over David's body reveals no outward signs of trauma or disease.
He's only 56. NARRATOR: But when Dr. G examines David's face and eyes, she spots something suspicious.
He had a very congested appearance to his face, a little bluish discoloration. NARRATOR: And David also has multiple broken blood vessels
inside his eyes and eye membrane, a condition known as petechiae. Basically that means to me that there
is a lot of increased pressures in his vascular system, the head and chest region.
We often see that with people who die of sudden cardiac deaths. NARRATOR: But Dr. G will need more
concrete evidence to determine exactly what killed David. And there was only one place left to look for answers--
inside the body itself. Coming up next, was David's wife right and his doctors wrong?
Or could there be another stranger explanation? That's interesting. This is a case of a sudden death of a patient
with no known disease that would cause him to die. What was really going on with him inside?
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. Dr. G's morgue technicians are busy prepping
the body of 56-year-old David Gilliam for the next part of the autopsy. We gotta get this going.
NARRATOR: She hopes the internal exam will provide the answer to a pressing question weighing heavily on David's wife's mind.
Was he the victim of a medical misdiagnosis? Tina Gilliam is not convinced that David's chest pains
were due to panic attacks. I thought that David had had a couple of heart attacks.
I wanted them to look for something different. NARRATOR: First, Dr. G makes a standard Y
incision across David's torso, revealing the internal organs. OK, go do your side.
NARRATOR: Next, she cuts through the ribs and sternum and slowly removes David's chest plate.
As soon as they take off the chest plate, it's like, oh my gosh, I see there's a problem here.
NARRATOR: The problem she spots is with David's heart sac, or pericardial sac. The heart sac is a tough membrane that surrounds
and protects the heart. It's like a little bag that the heart sits in. So the heart sits in this bag and then
you have both lungs on both sides, and it pumps inside this bag. NARRATOR: Normally, this sac contains a small amount
of fluid that acts as a lubricant, cushioning the heart and allowing it to beat freely inside the sac.
But in David's case, Dr. G finds something else. Looks like blood. Yeah, his heart sac is full of blood.
NARRATOR: This much blood in the heart sac is lethal. The buildup of fluid presses back against the heart
and ultimately prevents it from beating. This is called a cardiac tamponade. The tamponade is clearly what killed David.
And as Dr. G carefully examines the walls of David's heart, she quickly finds the source of the trouble.
Oh, my. As I look at the heart, on the back side of the heart, there's about a one-fourth inch tear to the heart muscle.
NARRATOR: This tear proves that David's heart burst open, flooding his heart sac with blood.
JAN GARAVAGLIA: See, you can see the tear right through. That's where the muscle blew out.
NARRATOR: But Dr. G must now get to the bottom of a new mystery. What caused the rupture in the first place?
She soon finds further evidence that there was something terribly wrong with David's heart.
His heart muscle was yellow and soft and just necrotic. I can see that. NARRATOR: This dead heart muscle is a clear indication
that David suffered a myocardial infarction, or heart attack, some time before his death.
JAN GARAVAGLIA: He's had a heart attack. NARRATOR: Dr. G has now uncovered the chain of events
that led to David's death. First, he experienced a heart attack, and a section of his heart began to die and decay.
Then the wall of his heart muscle became so weak that eventually, it burst open, allowing blood
to pour into his heart sac. And all the blood rushes out of the heart into that sac.
And it's a very, very quick way to die. NARRATOR: However, it appears that David suffered
his heart attack well before his death without ever knowing it. When that man was having his symptoms,
that's when he was having the heart attack about seven days ago. NARRATOR: Only a small portion of David's heart
was affected, which allowed him to carry on his normal everyday activities unaware,
until it fatally ruptured seven days later. She said the heart was a muscle and that the muscle just exploded, so to speak.
And when I got to thinking about it later, I cried. NARRATOR: But Tina Gilliam is still
anxious to know if her husband experienced earlier heart attacks that doctors misdiagnosed as panic attacks.
I wanted to hear something that I didn't do wrong. NARRATOR: And in order for Dr. G to answer that pressing
question, she must figure out exactly what caused the heart attack that started this fatal chain
reaction in the first place. Coming up next, could David Gilliam's death have been prevented?
Dr. G finds the answers, but will they satisfy David's grieving widow? This is a fairly rare complication of a heart attack.
Most people's heart attacks don't do this. NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
Dr. G is on a quest to discover what caused David Gilliam's heart attack. She also hopes to answer Tina Gilliam's pressing question.
Were David's chest pains that he experienced throughout the years panic attacks related
to his PTSD or heart attacks? You really just want your loved one back. You know your life is changing.
You cannot stop it. But you're just searching for anything and everything to tell you that you didn't do anything wrong.
NARRATOR: Dr. G painstakingly dissects David's coronary artery, which is the main blood vessel that supplies blood
and oxygen to the heart muscle. She is searching for a possible blockage. I got to make sure I don't cut myself.
NARRATOR: Then after a few minutes of fruitless searching-- Voila, a little thrombosis.
Blood clot right inside the coronary artery-- classic. NARRATOR: Dr. G has her culprit.
A blood clot or thrombus is obstructing David's coronary artery. So no blood is getting to that part of the heart.
That part of the heart starts to die. And that's why he's having chest pain. NARRATOR: But for Dr. G, the case of David Gilliam
isn't over until she can answer the question closest to Tina Gilliam's heart. Was this the first or the last of many heart
attacks for her husband? I had thought that David had had a couple of heart attacks,
and I wanted somebody to pay attention to me. NARRATOR: Typically after a heart attack,
the body will replace dead heart muscle with scar tissue in an effort to heal itself.
The heart itself is kind of a reddish brown, and the scar tissue is kind of white.
NARRATOR: Had David experienced previous heart attacks, Dr. G should be able to see white scar tissue.
But when she examines David's heart further, she finds nothing. This absence of scar tissue can mean only one thing.
He's had no other heart attacks. So he's not having little heart attacks. He only had one big heart attack about one week before he died.
NARRATOR: Now Tina can at least take comfort in the knowledge that David was not misdiagnosed.
The chest pains he'd been experiencing over the years were panic attacks after all.
With this last piece of the puzzle, Dr. G is now able to reconstruct the final moments
of David's life. About seven days before his death, David Gilliam begins to experience
mysterious chest pains. A thrombus, or blood clot, has developed in David's coronary artery and is obstructing
the blood flow to his heart. Unaware that he has just had a heart attack, David fails to call a doctor and continues
his normal daily activities. Meanwhile, his heart muscle deprived of oxygen rich blood,
continues to die, turning yellow, soft, and necrotic. Then seven days after the initial heart attack,
tragedy strikes. He's lying in bed with his wife. He may have felt something funny, reaches out to her.
While he's reaching out, the heart muscle broke open at that vulnerable spot where it had died.
NARRATOR: Like a burst dam, blood begins to hemorrhage through the hole in David's heart.
Once that sac is under pressure, as the blood's coming out of the heart, it's pushing back on the heart.
And eventually, the heart can't beat anymore. It tamponades. NARRATOR: David collapses and never
regains consciousness again. And he dies. NARRATOR: It is an end that came too soon for the loved
ones David left behind. I would say to David, thank you for being part of my life
and for letting us know that life is about people. And it's about taking care of one another,
loving one another. It's not about the dead. It's about the living. NARRATOR: But even as she grieves,
Tina remains grateful to Dr. G for giving her the answers she so desperately needed.
Dr. G was fantastic on the phone with me. She gave me a lot of understanding about what happened.
The irony of it all is that he's having symptoms for years, and he didn't have heart disease.
And it's kind of like the boy who cries wolf. When he truly has the symptoms, he ignores it.
NARRATOR: Had David seen a doctor when he first began to experience his symptoms seven
days before his death, it is possible that his heart attack might have been treatable.
But David never did make the call, and Dr. G thinks she knows why. You wonder that maybe because he's had all these episodes
of post-traumatic stress that that's why he didn't go seek help. It's a very real possibility.
NARRATOR: As she wraps up her case, Dr. G reflects on the wounds of war and the fact
that they are not always visible to the naked eye. I think when we think of war, we think of people being
shot and killed right away. And we don't often think of the huge toll it plays on your psyche and how sometimes these men
have to live with it for years. And it is a huge toll on human life in a very indirect way.
MAN: Atlas.

Dr. G. has just graduated from medical school and is set to begin her first job as an M.E. in Jacksonville, Florida when a high-profile case challenges her to use her newly acquired skills.

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

Brief Summary

Dr. G investigates 44 bodies in a funeral home and a sudden death linked to PTSD, revealing shocking medical truths.

Key points

Dr. G's First Case. Dr. G embarks on her first case as a medical examiner, uncovering shocking truths about a funeral director.
The Morning Glory Investigation. A routine inspection reveals a funeral home scandal involving decomposed bodies and fraud.
A Shocking Discovery. Dr. G discovers a rat's nest inside a decomposed body, revealing the extent of neglect.
Justice for the Deceased. Dr. G's findings lead to charges against a funeral director for neglect and fraud.
Misdiagnosis or Panic Attacks?. Tina questions if David's chest pains were misdiagnosed as panic attacks.
A Sudden Death. David Gilliam, a healthy 56-year-old, dies unexpectedly in bed, leaving his wife desperate for answers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was exciting. I mean, it was making national news.

Dr. G describes the high stakes of her first case.

12:38WatchJun 1, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.