Daily Archive

My clinial instructor let me off work right after lunch, so after saying goodbye to everyone (and quickly filling out the clinical experience feedback packet) I left around 2 pm.  Since CSI: The Experience (an immersive, interactive forensic science exhibition) at the HMNS was moving on this Wednesday, getting off earlier was perfect to allow me to check it out!  Gotta milk this student status for all it’s worth ($12 instead of $15).  Elliot had said he was really interested in doing this as a job.  He heard you had to be a police officer first, so at first he was aiming for that.  But when he heard you had to be an officer for quite a while at first (something like that), so he changed his mind.  Here’s some more information from our national government:  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/178280.htm.  After going through the exhibit, it is really way too much for me to handle (biochemistry, physics, geology, psychology, social science, law….).  Maybe I could do this….http://www.loisgibson.com/

I had remembered incorrectly (I got the two mixed up in my head) that the HMNS was beyond the MFAH if I just followed Main Street, so I walked all the way to the highway (the entrance to US-59).  I thought to myself at this point (after using the gas station restroom), this cannot be right, the museum can’t be beyond this.  So I stepped into a car insurance office lobby and asked the young Hispanic woman where the HMNS was.  She told me to head toward Fannin in the back, take the Rail, and it would drop me right where the HMNS was in the Museum District.  At this point my back was hurting from my heavy backpack (I had brought my Anatomy binder for Jennifer Garcia to peruse, and I had my Spanish-English/English-Spanish dictionary), but I still didn’t want to “risk” going beyond my stop and didn’t want to bother with figuring out the system.  So I walked back, and was still confused.  There were two African-American men with their reflective gear sitting under the shade of some trees, I think directing the traffic coming into the parking lot of the church.  I asked them where to go, and they instructed me.  As I was following the directions and apparently missing/heading away from the museum for the last leg of the directions, a guy stopped me and asked where the HMNS for the Lucy exhibit was.  I said that as a matter of fact I was looking for the HMNS as well.  He then said that he suspected that I needed to turn around.  I offered we could both check it out  together, but he said he had family waiting for him in the car, so I headed off by myself.  As I was walking, I stopped an older white man and he turned around and pointed to the building.  Yes!  Turns out it was just at the Sam Houston statue, the one I had stopped and admired and then passed up on my way north.

My first round of business was to take off my backpack, lift up my legs, and replenish my bodily fluids.  Some people were staring at me.  I hope I wasn’t THAT much of a frazzled scene.  Then, I headed to the counter.  I had forgotten that I had been here before when I was younger.  He said he was going to put me at the 3:30 showing (it was timed), and I was a bit disoriented.  Then I realized it was already 3 pm.  He then asked which crime scene I wanted to solve.  I had no idea.  He then made the suggestion that #2 (Who Got Served?) was the hardest, after which was #1 (A House Collided) and then #3 (No Bones About It).  As I was processing this, thinking I’d do the medium one, he continued and made the recommendation of #2.  Okay :-)  The things I learned:

• Digital evidence–checking calls on the cell phone, where was she last?
• Latent prints–fingerprints
• Impression evidence–tire tracks, shoeprints
• Toxicology/Drug Chemistry–like what we did in school, titrating until a different color appeared; blood alcohol concentration
• Forensic Entomology–blow fly growth places the approximate interval since death
• Forensic Biology/DNA–compare with missing persons, mitochondrial DNA in hair is not as informative as full DNA but it can show what species it’s from
• Trace Evidence–artificial fibers from pillow, dog hair
• Blood Spatter–passive (drip, flow, pool), transfer/contact (e.g. wipe or swipe pattern), projected (velocity impacted)
• Firearms and Toolmarks–caliber, retrieving filed off registration ID#
• Forensic Botany–non-native seeds and pollen
• Forensic Anthropology/Dental–to find identity of victim
• Chain of custody is chronological documentation, and/or paper trail, showing the seizure, custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of evidence, physical or electronic. Because evidence can be used in court to convict persons of crimes, it must be handled in a scrupulously careful manner to avoid later allegations of tampering or misconduct which can compromise the case of the prosecution toward acquittal or to overturning a guilty verdict upon appeal. The idea behind recoding the chain of custody is to establish that the alleged evidence is fact related to the alleged crime - rather than, for example, having been planted faudulently to make someone appear guilty.
• Cause of death in #2 was toxicology before being run over because if the victim was killed while being run over, then blood would have gushed forth in the visceral cavities.  #1 was a blow to the head before the “forward forces” of driving through the family room of a house (his last meal was pizza - as shown through a plastic vessel mounted to the wall with plastic pepperoni pieces inside).  Manner of death in #3 was homicide, by gunshot (cause of death).

Dr. Edmond Locard (1877 – 1966) was a pioneer in forensic science who became known as the Sherlock Holmes of France. He formulated his basic Locard’s exchange principle of forensic science: “Every Contact Leaves a Trace“:

‘Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as a silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or his footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects. All of these and more, bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value’ (Traité de Criminalistique by Locard).

Monday, April 21, 2008.  Rick’s recovering from attending the wedding (of Dr. Barber, psychiatrist, and Dr. Romero, psychologist) so he didn’t come in today.  Since Dr. Barber’s going to be gone for a month on his honeymoon, Dr. Coverdale covered rounds with us this morning.  Before I knew it, the morning was pretty much gone (around 10 or 10:30).  I don’t even know how it happened, because I had imagined that it felt dragged out, but it didn’t.  *Shrug*  I performed another KELS (she all-of-a-sudden put her head down and didn’t respond), had lunch, then administered the other KELS (to the one with GAD), as requested by Dr. Camp.  In the evening, Jeff picked me up to watch the Rockets game.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008.  Rick came back so Sally showed us the photographs she took :-D.  At home, Vickie told me about Jennifer Chung.  Her first original song, “Very Last Time,” if it were by one of the major pop artists I probably wouldn’t look twice, but this is an unsigned, rejected-from-American-Idol, Korean-American living in California who wrote and sang it!  I also baked Angel Food Cake (the bigger batch with pineapple as directed by Tiffany Lin and the smaller experimental batch with cocoa).  “Vicky is my UT friend I told you about that is at UTSA grad school for kinesiology.  She very nicely said that you can ask her questions about UTSA and becoming a PT” LOL!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008.  I attended rounds then finished writing up my last KELS.  Jennifer had a doctor’s appointment around noon so she again couldn’t join us (long awaited doctor’s appointment) as we went out to Black Walnut Cafe for my last week here.  Tiffani drove Elderine and me, while Sally drove Theo, Rick, and Janet.  Rick paid for my lunch and then offered to buy me dessert, so I picked the German chocolate cake ($6?) since the woman in front of us chose that.  I told them I brought angel food cake (which Jennifer had tasted in the morning for breakfast and loved the chocolate flavor).  When we came back from lunch, I had missed giving one of my patients her creatively painted pig (with specks of brown for mud/dirt).  Oh well.  I showed an informational video on bipolar disorder, which was ended early due to disinterest from the patients, haha.  I honestly couldn’t say much for one guy because really right now he looks normal, and Rick agrees, although he reminded me about the presenting incident, which I had forgotten to ask him about.  This is what the patient explained to me, since had told the doctor he felt he was getting better, but told me that really he’s saying that so he can get out (he’s here involuntarily).  The patient said that if someone kept saying I was a lesbian (and he reassured me that he wasn’t labeling me that), and that unless I accepted and said that I indeed believed I was a lesbian then I could go outside, then I would comply as well.  In the end, it would either be me still believing I was a heterosexual and just on the surface acknowledging I was a lesbian, or I would be brainwashed and be convinced out of repetition that I was in fact attracted to girls and not guys.  Anyway, later Rick sat in as I evaluated a new guy, probably to see if I had improved in that arena, since it was my weak point.  Linton had sent out an evite about going to see the iFest, Lucy, Hermann Park, and Star Pizza on Saturday - wow.  I went to bed at 9 pm.

Thursday, April 24, 2008.  Janet was early because she had to prepare for the psych booth of the health fair (which Rick helped to set up and Elderine/Tiffani/Jennifer also helped).  I called the PT about one of our patients who had problems walking recently (new decompensation) for some reason.  I did my last rounds, and my last cooking group (which accumulated 68 RVUs for Rick since Janet was busy with the health fair).  During lunch we had free lunch from the fair, and I also went around grabbing some free items.

Friday, April 25, 2008.  Rick again negotiated the groups so I could finish early.  I could leave at lunch, but I joined them and actually tried the angel food cake I had brought.  Rick showed me his FWPE scores to him and announced that I had passed the rotation, YAY!  Then I could leave, but not until after I filled out the evaluation of the rotation form and turned it in.  Rick and Tiffani said that all the other students were out the door the second the signal was given.  I also had to say goodbye to my patients (even the new one I evaluated today haha), the nurses (Loida said to call them once in awhile), the psych techs (Victor keeps saying that I’m always one of the first to work with the difficult patients), even the new med students (Bo, Lan Lan, and Charlotte).  My patients were so nice, came up to me and said that were very grateful for the help I gave them (I thought they didn’t feel I helped them that much, especially one who kept making comments that we were keeping her here longer than she wanted).  And Jennifer was super sweet, even giving me a card and apologizing for not giving me a gift card to Starbucks or something!  Since Rick let me leave early, I decided to see the CSI exhibit.  My parents took me to Old Place Cafe to celebrate LOL.  But w00t! the Rockets won their first win (finally!) on the Jazz court, 94-92, last night.  Just reading it while waiting for the food to come got me nervous, it was such a close game!