About the Founder

Vidal Herrera has twenty-eight years of experience working within hospital and medical-legal forensic environments. His background as a former Field Deputy Coroner Investigator with the Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner Coroner, California has provided the advanced skills and expertise only extensive exposure can provide. As a family man and active community benefactor, Vidal is sensitive to the needs of the survivor/family in facilitating the essential thanatology related requirements. He belongs to a number of civic, trade and professional organizations.

His forensic investigative background, coupled with his exceptional knowledge in hospital and mortuary care, led to the formation of Autopsy/Post Services, Inc. 1-800-Autopsy is a totally autonomous and mobile-based specialty company providing efficient quality anatomic, clinical procurement and forensic services nationwide since 1988.

Funeral industry, hospitals & research institutions, organ transplant & tissue procurement foundations, private families, forensic-based pathologists and the legal community at local, national and international levels, have come to rely on 1-800-Autopsy for providing accurate and high quality standards. His most important focus, apart from broadening society's perspective of death, is providing the deceased with a voice.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Here is some information that will give you a broad overview of my company, including how it began and of it's functionality.

COMPANY OVERVIEW
1-800-AUTOPSY began as a one-man operation in late 1988. It came about from sheer desperation mixed with luck, and has enjoyed significant success and steady growth due to market demand for the unique specialty services we provide.

FOUNDER
Formerly employed as a Field Deputy Coroner-Investigator for the Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner Coroner in California, Nursing Attendant, X-Ray Dark Room Attendant, Central Service Technician, Emergency Room Admitting Clerk/Interpreter, Mortuary Attendant, Forensic Autopsy Technician, Forensic Medical Photographer and eventually investigations.

On August 28, 1984 I sustaining a career-ending lower back injury while lifting a corpse on the job. Major back surgery ensued, compelling me into retirement, where I remained in rehabilitative care confined part-time to a wheel-chair for approximately four years. I surprised doctors by leaving my wheelchair behind and now use only a cane for occasional support . . . but my new disability prevented me from finding any employment, despite having submitted over 2,000 job applications in California and six neighboring states.

In late 1988 an acquaintance from the Medical Examiner's office referred me to the Veteran's Administration West Los Angeles Medical Center who were in need of a skilled and experienced autopsy technician. That first referral led to countless others. While utilizing my prior work experience, knowledge of the medical/legal/forensic and hospital environments along with my technical skills enabled me to make an independent living one job at a time. I came to see the public's need unmet by the medical community - for the kinds of services I could provide. I founded 1-800-AUTOPSY later that same year.

SCOPE OF SERVICES
With the business named, I immediately obtained the "vanity" telephone number "1-800-AUTOPSY" (def: autopsy: Autopsia, from Greek, a seeing for oneself), and later secured the same as an Internet domain name for my eventual World Wide Web site: www.1800autopsy.com Over a period of time, the range of services developed.

Our services are offered, as necessary, to families (next-of-kin), Funeral directors, Cremationists, hospitals, attorneys, transplant institutions, research investigators, and other related organizations. We carry out these services in hospitals and funeral homes in an ancillary capacity, not in peoples homes, or in my vehicle, as reported by the media, in strictest adherence to decorum, privacy and correct medical procedures and conditions

The business is mobile-based to provide appropriate procurement and transport/delivery services for tissue specimens, and to facilitate client response and prompt management of procedures. The 1-800-AUTOPSY van is fully equipped with mobile Telecommunication s equipment, including paging/voicemail, mobile fax, phone and portable computer & printer, surgical instruments & attire, storage/packaging containers and photography equipment. Calls are answered immediately, and services provided within 4 to 8 hours.

MISSION
Death's inevitability and the generally "fearsome and negative" connotation around it do provide a challenge to the public's awareness of the unique services we provide. However, once people learn not only about the value of what we do but also about the highest standards of ethical conduct with which we carry out our responsibilities, acceptance is very high.

We believe, and state in our motto, "mortuis praesdium et vocem dare necessee est." - the deceased must be protected and given a voice. By seeking the truth through medical investigation, we fulfill that goal by allowing otherwise hidden information to come to light, even though the deceased can no longer speak for themselves. The ability to uncover such information through autopsy procedures should be available to all that need it; there are no ethnic, financial, religious or cultural barriers in death.

A significant part of 1-800-AUTOPSY's mission is to broaden society's perspective about the "positive side of death" with respect to transplantable tissue, cadaver-tissue research, and whole body donations. With radical innovations emerging in new less invasive delicate surgical procedures, rigorous testing techniques in research there is a critical shortage and constant demand for fresh cadavers, which lowers the availability to medical schools. We will also be involved, through our network of franchises, with the non-profit organizations that recycle and redistribute medical appliances that are donated to and given to developing countries. In working to accomplish these tasks, we enjoy significant assistance and support from funeral directors and cremationists who society, unfortunately, has a negative view as depicted in the media who tend to question, confuse and distort their true value. This alliance may eventually aid the public in understanding their "true role", integrity and service to the community.

INDUSTRY
No schools in our county teach or prepare young adults for a career like mine. Most of my skills were acquired through a volunteer program more than 24 years ago which no longer is available. Autopsies are time-consuming, costly and becoming problematic for hospitals. The current climate in Corporate America (medical), specifically the HMOs, with continual consolidations, down-sizing and prudent cost cutting measures, has affected routine hospital autopsy rates in our country. Autopsies have decreased dramatically from 50% of all deaths prior to 1978 to below 5%, the current national average. Hospitals have quite literally released their fiduciary duties and/or abdicated their responsibilities. Consequently , many pathologists, who by definition are "the conscience of medicine" are losing jobs and have called for a reversal of this trend, but it is not clear whether their voices will be heard. Sadly, the deceased are merely dismissed as just a statistical denominator with no apparent value to corporate's "bottom line" of profit. Given that some 10.5% of the approximately 2.4 million deaths per year in this country result from medical malpractice, and some 44.9% of deaths are misdiagnosed, this is an alarming decline.

One of the ways in which historians measure civilization is by the way society treats their dead.

With less staffing and increased budgetary constrictions local municipalities, specifically Medical Examiners-Coroners, offices are performing fewer autopsies. For those who wish to obtain an autopsy, the path is not always an easy one. Services like mine are essentially unknown outside of our service area in Southern California, and as a result, whenever we receive media coverage, requests have come to us not only from other parts of the nation but internationally as well.