Autopsies Are Easy, Red Tape Is Hard

At least dead men don't give you the runaround.

That much Vidal Herrera knows.

Herrera, 42, owns an El Sereno company called Autopsy/Post Services Inc. So far, he's found it easier to cut up dead bodies and scoop out lungs and hearts than to get information about a job training bill from his elected representatives.

Herrera has become something of a media sensation since his "discovery" a year ago by my colleague, "Only in L.A." columnist Steve Harvey. Harvey highlighted Herrera's van, which tools the highways and back alleys emblazoned with "1-800-AUTOPSY."

Herrera is an autopsy technician. He hires pathologists to perform private autopsies, removes organs for research, and takes bodily fluids samples for paternity and DNA analyses. He'll swab blood at a murder site or tidy up after a rotting corpse. He also coordinates the willed body program for anatomy students at UCLA's medical school.

Since The Times' mention, "El Muerto," as Herrera is also known, has been featured in publications far and wide. He's been dubbed a "cut-rate coroner," a "rigorous mortician." He has been offered thousands of dollars to relinquish the rights to 1-800-AUTOPSY (sorry, not for sale), and he's talking franchises.

It was, in fact, after Herrera was recently featured on CNN that a staffer in Sen. Edward Kennedy's office phoned with information about the jobs program.

The School-to-Work Opportunities Act will provide up to $300 million in 1995 (and funding through 1999) for businesses to apprentice high school students. Students would eventually receive high school diplomas and certificates of competency in their chosen fields. The bill is aimed at training the 75% of all American high school students who do not receive four-year college degrees.

Herrera thought it sounded perfect for his company.

After all, he learned his craft on the job, first as a volunteer, then as an investigator in the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. No college degree was necessary. And his business is becoming lucrative, grossing in the "low six figures." Some of his assistants are medical-school-bound college students, but why not train high schoolers?

An autopsy empire needs \o7 warm \f7 bodies too.

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You have to expect that a column about a guy who slices open chests, then snips away at the ribs with garden shears for a living is going to contain at least a partially blocked artery's worth of gore.