Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York

History

The office was established on January 1, 1918, pursuant to a 1915 act of the New York State Legislature that abolished the office of the Coroner of New York City. The Chief Medical Examiner is appointed by the mayor. Dr. Patrick D. Riordan was the last coroner and the first acting medical examiner from January 1 to February 1, 1918, when Dr. Charles Norris was appointed by the mayor as the first official Chief Medical Examiner of New York City. The office was established at the R & S Building on the campus of Bellevue Hospital, where it remained until 1961 when it moved into a new facility at the northeast corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street.

The OCME provides the citizens of New York City essential services directly by identifying the manner and cause of death in specified cases, as well as providing state-of-the-art forensic DNA analysis through the OCME Forensic Biology Laboratory.

These services include on-site investigation into manner and cause of death; identification of remains; performing autopsies; performing DNA testing related to identification of remains; examination of homicide, sexual assault, and other crime evidence collected by the Police Department for DNA extraction and typing; and responding to disasters that involve fatalities as part of a multidisciplinary team of city agencies.

It was reported that as of May 7, 2021, there were 750 bodies "who died during the pandemic" were still inside refrigerated truck trailers at Brooklyn's 39th Street pier awaiting burial.

List of chief medical examiners

Unified Victim Identification System

In the aftermath of the numerous deaths resulting from the September 11th attacks on New York City and the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, the OCME developed the Unified Victim Identification System (UVIS). An Internet-enabled database system, it is intended to handle critical fatality management functions in the case of a major disaster with numerous deaths. It also has functionality to enable the OCME to respond to an influenza pandemic.

References

References

1. Evans, Colin. (2008). "Blood on the Table; The Greatest Cases of New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner". The Berkley Publishing Group.
2. Hesch, Merrill. (July 1986). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: New York SP R & S Building". National Archives and Records Administration.
3. (1960-09-12). "Autopsy Center Near Completion". [[The New York Times]].
4. O'Kane, Lawrence. (1961-04-13). "Dr. Helpern Gets His New Center". [[The New York Times]].
5. (2021-05-07). "NYC still storing COVID-19 victims in refrigerated trucks".
6. Kravitz, Derek. (2021-05-06). "Bodies of Hundreds of New York COVID Victims Still in Trucks on Brooklyn Pier".
7. (February 1, 1918). "Norris Succeeds Riordan". [[The New York Times]].
8. (July 22, 1937). "New Chief Medical Examiner Is Sworn In". [[The New York Times]].
9. (April 23, 1977). "Milton Helpern, Ex-Chief Medical Examiner, 75, Dies. With New York Office for 42 Years. Called a Sherlock Holmes". [[The New York Times]].
10. Roberts, Sam. (10 April 2016). "Charles S. Hirsch, New York's Chief Medical Examiner on 9/11, Dies at 79". [[The New York Times]].
11. (2014-12-10). "Mayor de Blasio Appoints Dr. Barbara Sampson as Chief Medical Examiner". NYC Office of the Mayor.
12. (2021-11-30). "NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner Announces Departure of Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson". NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
13. (October 2008). "Pandemic Influenza Surge Plan For Managing In- and Out-of-Hospital Deaths". City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner.