Is the hospital system less safe because it's too stretched? Are you seeing more of those sort of cases?

We're not seeing more, no.

And in fact...

It's always interesting when you look at numbers because I see equal numbers of people who refuse to go to hospital or refuse to seek medical attention passing away of treatable illnesses.

And yes, from working in the coronial system, the coroner will investigate the deaths of those who have died in hospital.

But we're working with a... people who may be very, very unwell.

And despite heroic efforts, people may still pass away in hospital.

Do you remember your first body?

So sometimes you do look for a bit of context to the actual death scene.

And when we go to the scene, it has multiple roles, so it is putting the death in context, but not in a terms of-Who the police are looking for in relation to who might have, uh, been involved in that death.

Uh, that- that's a complete aside.

It's the scene and how it relates to the deceased person.

So are there factors at the scene that are going to alter how the body appears, how the injuries might appear? Is there a specific object? Is- is the person up against a bar heater, and that explains why they've got multiple parallel red lines on the body, that that's actually an artifact from the heater, not because someone's hit them with an unusual weapon with that pattern on? So that can be really important in interpreting it.

And in many other cases, it's actually going to other scenes where the death is thought to be suspicious, and it turns out not to be, and we can in- interpret those postmortem artifacts that might look really concerning to a layperson.

But we can say, "No, that's not a pool of blood.

Mm.

They don't appear on behalf of either party.

For the majority of cases, there are things to discuss.

It isn't black and white from a pathology point of view.

When we go to the scene, it has multiple roles, so it is putting the death in context, but not in a terms of who the police are looking for in relation to who might have, uh, been involved in that death.

Uh, that- that's a complete aside.

It's the scene and how it relates to the deceased person.

So are there factors at the scene that are going to alter how the body appears, how the injuries might appear? Is there a specific object? Is, is the person up against a bar heater, and that explains why they've got multiple parallel red lines on the body, that that's actually an artifact from the heater and not because someone's hit them with an unusual weapon with that pattern on.

It seems to me from speaking to other pathol- to you and other pathologists, that part of coping from a mental health perspective is that compartmentalization, is just focusing on your bit of the job.