Autopsies

Toxicology results released to the family of singer Amy Winehouse this week raised almost as many questions as they answered, experts said Wednesday, keeping the cause of the "Rehab" singer's death a mystery. The Winehouse family issued a statement on Tuesday saying no illegal substances were found in the 27-year-old's system after her death at her London home on July 23. The absence of banned drugs may come as a relief to her father, Mitch, given Winehouse's history of drug and alcohol addiction and rampant speculation about the role narcotics may have played in her death.

Armen Gilliam , who was part of the UNLV basketball team that made a run to the Final Four in 1987 and played for several NBA teams died at 47. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday that Gilliam died Tuesday night at the LA Fitness gym in Bridgeville, Pa., while playing basketball. The office said an autopsy was pending. The Phoenix Suns drafted Gilliam as the No. 2 overall pick in the 1987 NBA draft. In addition to the Suns, Gilliam played for the Charlotte Hornets, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz.

Sometimes the remains of American war dead arrive at the military morgue intact, sealed inside a "human remains pouch" — a body bag. Sometimes they arrive as "dissociated remains" — a leg, an arm or other body parts ripped loose by the force of a roadside bomb or suicide bomber or air crash. And sometimes there are commingled remains of several victims of a blast or crash, including service members, civilian bystanders and, in some cases, a suicide bomber. Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Regan literally lays hands on remains of the dead.

Friends and family were no closer to knowing what caused a prominent Orange County surgeon to be found dead in her swimming pool after an autopsy Monday proved inconclusive. The body of Dr. Marianne E. Cinat, 45, medical director of the UC Irvine Regional Burn Center, was discovered late Saturday morning by a close friend at Cinat's home in unincorporated Rossmoor, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Cinat, who was fully clothed, had been in the pool for more than 10 hours before the call came in at 11:15 a.m., he said.

Television crime shows have helped popularize autopsies, but in reality these postmortem exams are becoming rarer every year. Today, hospitals perform autopsies on only about 5 percent of patients who die, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1960s. That's unfortunate, say experts, because details about the cause of death can be illuminating for both families and hospitals, even if they don't turn up an undiagnosed ailment or other new information about the cause of death. Kristine Johnson's father, Nathan Johnson, developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease and died last August, five years after having received that diagnosis at age 52. He worked as a lineman for a power company near the family home in Waterford, Conn., and had on occasion been injured by powerful jolts of electricity, says Kristine, who is 36. She hoped that an autopsy would provide some answers, possibly related to injuries he sustained on the job, about why he developed Alzheimer's at such an early age. (Most people who develop Alzheimer's do so after age 65; only about 5 percent of cases are early-onset.)

Ron Salcer, a longtime hockey agent based in Manhattan Beach, spent most of last week talking business with New York Rangers forward Derek Boogaard. When they met to celebrate Boogaard's final night in Southern California, Salcer brought his family. "We had a great dinner. My daughter said how good he looked, how happy he was," Salcer said. "We said goodbye Wednesday night, he traveled Thursday and on Friday I got the phone call from his brother. " The call brought unfathomable news.

The trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician will include two haunting but starkly different depictions of the pop star's last day — a video of him dancing and singing on stage and photos taken hours later of his lifeless body on a coroner's gurney, a judge ruled Thursday. L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor cleared prosecutors to present the rehearsal footage and autopsy photos during a lengthy hearing that established evidentiary boundaries for next month's involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.

An anesthesiologist's "suboptimal" care caused a woman to die after recent weight-loss surgery at a Beverly Hills clinic connected to the 1-800-GET-THIN advertising campaign, according to an autopsy report by the Los Angeles County coroner. The report does not identify the anesthesiologist, but lawyers for the clinic and the dead woman's family said it was Dr. Daniel Shin, a Marina del Rey physician. Shin was on probation with the state medical board at the time of the surgery because of his conviction for assaulting a process server with a meat cleaver, according to medical board records.

A 35-year-old man was struck 12 times by gunfire in the chest, arms and lower legs last December when police mistook a water hose nozzle he was holding for a gun, Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference Monday. McDonnell told reporters that he wanted to offer further details about the fatal shooting and "clarify outstanding issues. " He said a coroner's report showed that Douglas Zerby was hit 12 times with shotgun pellets and bullets from a handgun and was grazed three times.