Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner - Judy Melinek, T. J. Mitchell Audiobook

Written by Judy Melinek, T. J. Mitchell
Read by Tanya Eby
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Release date: September 3, 2014
Duration: 07:43:23

Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist.

With her husband and their toddler holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation-performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, and counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy’s two years of training, taking listeners behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple.

Lively, action-packed, and loaded with mordant wit, Working Stiff offers a firsthand account of daily life in one of America’s most arduous professions. The body never lies-and through the murders, accidents, and suicides that land on her table, Dr. Melinek lays bare the truth behind the glamorized depictions of autopsy work to reveal the secret story of the real morgue.

“…After 9/11, she and her 29 fellow medical examiners look at 19,956 pieces of recovered remains (598 are assigned to her), including a wedding band inscribed forever Kevin and a batch of nothing but feet. But before she gets to those details, she devotes most of her account to more typical deaths by natural causes as well as homicides and suicides (she autopsied many of each). Melinek is movingly empathetic toward the families of victims. After all, she stood in their shoes: her own psychiatrist dad killed himself. Today she continues to perform autopsies (more than 2,000 so far) while teaching at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. An unforgettable story.”— Booklist,