Show #174 - Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert on Gunshot Wounds and Autopsy Lessons Learned

Show #174 - Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert on Gunshot Wounds and Autopsy Lessons Learned 
This week Mike interviews American Warrior Society member Dr. Charles Siebert and digs into the lessons learned from his thousands of hours of medical examinations and autopsies.     

​GUNSHOT WOUNDS: A FORENSIC PATHOLOGY POINT OF VIEW
​Introduction
First, let me tell you a little about what it is that I do.  I am a medical doctor trained in pathology with board certifications in both anatomic and forensic pathology.  Anatomic pathology is your basic hospital pathology that deals with diseases and malfunctions of the body that cause illnesses and deaths from natural causes.   Forensic pathology takes those basic principles of pathology and goes even further to include all unnatural causes including accidents, homicides suicides, overdoses, etc., in addition to natural deaths.   For some perspective as to how unique this field is, there are only between 450-500 total board certified forensic pathologists actively working in the United States in comparison to 6-8,000 new internal medicine certifications issued each year.  So I am one of the few that gets to see the worst things one human being can do to another.  It’s not the easiest career but we take solace in knowing we can give families closure at probably the worst times of their lives.
Myths

ParagraphTo start with, I would first like to dispel some myths that pervade our culture about gunshot wounds and their effects on the body.  First and foremost, a body is not going to go flying across the room, or even get knocked backwards at all, despite what more movies than I care to count depict.  Injuries are caused by transfer of energy and there is just not enough energy coming out of the barrel of a gun to move an adult human across a room.  If there was, using Newton’s third law, the energy coming out of the barrel will also throw the shooter backwards which it doesn’t. 

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