Ontario’s chief pathologist Dr. Michael Pollanen testified Monday as part of an inquiry into long-term care homes in Ontario to determine how ex-nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer was able to kill eight patients in her care undetected.
According to Pollanen in his testimony, pathology is the study of disease, while forensic pathology focuses on death investigations and tries to determine the cause of death through an autopsy.
Once a pathologist has determined a cause of death, the autopsy report is submitted to the chief pathologist.
“I would never say to the pathologist ‘change your autopsy report to be the cause of death I think’, I’d say ‘you go with your autopsy report the way you believe it is true because you’re signing that paper, it has to be something that you believe to be true. If I or other people think that is an incorrect conclusion we will offer different opinions.’”
He testified that ultimately the coroner has the final say when it comes to the official cause of death.
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The inquiry was also shown a toxicology menu, which is filled out at an autopsy. Testing for insulin – which serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer used to kill eight patients in her care – does not fall into any of the menu items.
Pollanen said testing for insulin is not done at the Centre for Forensic Sciences.
READ MORE: Former colleague says she walked in on Wettlaufer telling resident ‘it was okay to let go’
He also noted the deaths of elderly people in long-term care homes aren’t investigated nearly as often as the rest of the population.
In his affidavit, he stated in 2015 only 9 per cent of death investigations in long-term care homes resulted in an autopsy, whereas in the general population the number of death investigations that resulted in an autopsy was closer to 40 per cent.
“If you look at what constitutes a reportable death, the nature of the elderly and the frequency of age-related diseases skews their deaths into the natural category, which is less likely to attract attention by the death investigation system.”
On June 26 of last year, Wettlaufer was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years for eight counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
With files from 980 CFPL’s Jacquelyn leBel.
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