Friday, January 23, 1987AThe Battalion/Page 9
'Local pathologist says he's not Quincy
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* 201»
Humor makes job easier for doctor
Pine Cove
Christian Camp
INTERVIEWING FOR SUMMER POSITIONS
Rudder - 10th floor
Jan. 26 & 27
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By Carolyn Garcia
Staff Writer
'sing;
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said Lee readily admits he’s not the kind of
i guv the average Joe would want to have lunch
1 1() with His off-beat sense of humor and quick smile
|erve him well in his profession.
B^ee is a pathologist.
^■.ee quickly dispels any ideas people may have
et I that he is like the television character Quincy, al-
fy r [j r though there is a sign on the morgue door that
Wl' reads, “Quiet! Dr. Quincy Lee at work.”
W‘I don’t ride around in a big, black car and in-
‘ 0r( |j n vestigate all the crime scenes,” Lee says. “I de-
f or pend on the information police officers bring
; n anvil me -”
; loobMAfter confessing he has never watched the TV
a S e" program, Lee says he has used the character’s no-
Cutive tor ' et y to fend off persistent defense attornies.
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One time this defense attorney kept bad
gering me because 1 told him I couldn’t give him
an exact answer to his question,” Lee says. “I fl-
nallv told him he should go ask Quincy.”
HAlmost everyone in the courtroom laughed,
including the judge, Lee says, and the only one
who failed to see the humor was the defense at
torney.
■Neither does Lee share the fictitious charac
ter’s fetish for neatness, as evidenced by his of-
; elilt ficc, which is piled high with medical journals, re-
po rts and research books collected over his 20
years as a pathologist.
■“The last time I cleaned it up everyone came in
here and clapped,” he says, “so I guess I won’t do
it again for awhile.
■This job is so serious, I try to make the atmo
sphere lighter for the people who have to attend
the autopsy but aren’t used to it. I try to tell a few
inside jokes. Many officers have never seen an
autopsy and they’re kind of afraid. It makes
things a lot easier.
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•Police have to attend all judge-ordered autop
sies in order to receive evidence such as tissue
samples or bullets. After recording the trans
action in a book kept with the evidence, Lee says,
the police must place the samples in the multi-
pidlocked refrigerator in the morgue.
■The refrigerator bears the sign, “Anyone who
tcjuches this will have to testify in court.”
■ This tends to deter any potential problems,
Lee says.
■ Lee pointed out the fact that he is not the
county medical examiner, but was asked by the
county to serve as a pathologist. A Texas county
must have a population of 200,000 before it can
have a medical examiner.
■ Lee says performing a judge-ordered autopsy
is a big responsiblity.
■ Every time I do a medical-legal autopsy I can
be called to testify,” Lee says, "and I have been
many times.
■ “I had some doubt about being called to court,
but I began to see that they needed someone. I’m
providing part of the evidence.
■ “You have to go through direct cross-examina
tion by the defense attorney. It is really wild be-
c|use you don’t know what questions are coming
next. You really have to stay calm and think
■rough your answers.
“Each time I go to court I’m nervous because I
of Ttu can t afford to goof. I never underestimate the
deadline defense attorney’s medical knowledge. I just try
he Boa:: to address the jury as clearly as possible.”
■■■■B Lee got involved in pathology because he
^Bought he was taking the easy way out. While at-
^rending medical school at Taiwan University he
0 reached a point in his education where he had to
make a choice between pathology or internal
^Redicine. He says he chose pathology because he
thought he would have less patient contact, and
therefore would have to speak less English.
|jj “My patients don’t talk to me — or at least I
hope they don’t,” Lee says.
if; Lee says he didn’t think about the doctors he
would have to talk to, families he would have to
explain things to, lab technicians he would have
to instruct, reports he would have to write and
court appearances he would have to make.
; But every case is a challenge because each one
is different, he says.
’ Before St. Joseph Hospital had a morgue, Lee
says, he performed his autopsies in funeral
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Dr. J.C. Lee, a Bryan pathologist, examines an office aid.
Photo by Marie McLeod
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homes, which proved to be very inconvenient, as
he had to cart his tools around.
“When you have a morgue in a hospital with
X-ray access it really simplifies things,” Lee says.
“I have to have some information on where to
start. You can’t just cut open and find what
you’re looking for.
“My first autopsy was a gunshot victim,” he
says. “I was doing it in a funeral home. I spent
nearly two hours looking for the bullet and just
“I don’t ride around in a big, black
car and investigate all the crime
scenes. I depend on the informa
tion police officers bring me. ”
— Dr. J.C. Lee, Bryan pathologist
when I had given up and was getting ready to
take the body to the hospital to be X-rayed, the
bullet fell out on the floor.”
Lee, who uses his Ph.D in genetics to teach sec
ond-year medical students, says Texas A&M Uni
versity donated the furnishings for his morgue
and St. Joseph Hospital donated the room.
On weekends, except for judge-ordered au
topsies, an A&M pathologist brings medical stu
dents to watch Lee perform autopsies.
“I hardly ever discuss work at home,” he says.
“When I finish an autopsy and have completed
the report I usually call a reporter and give them
my opinion — and that’s it.
“A person was killed and that’s bad enough. I
feel there is no need to advertise it by talking
about it.”
Lee’s most unusual case involved the death of
A&M Corps of Cadets member Bruce Goodrich.
“To me it was a clear-cut case of heatstroke,”
Lee says.
“1 had another case where an attorney kept
calling me trying to convince me I should change
my opinion from homicide to suicide,” Lee says.
“No one could buy me to say what was wrong.”
Lee says there have been only a few cases here
where murders have been disguised as suicide.
He says it is up to the justice of the peace to
pronounce death and order an autopsy when he
feels it’s necessary, but the problem with this is
that most justices of the peace have little or no
medical background.
Two cases that really stick in his mind involved
people being in the wrong place at the wrong
time.
Some boys had skipped Sunday school to go
explore an old, abandoned house only to dis
cover a body, Lee says.
“There was this guy who broke into this house
to rob it and found a body decomposing in a
bathtub,” he says. “The guy had no choice but to
call the police.”
Lee says most people think of pathologists ba
sically as lab technicians who are always looking
at slides.
“Pathology involves a wide field and you have
to have a broad base of knowledge,” he says.
“You have to know a lot about medicine because
pathology is a medical practice.”
Lee says aside from the obvious unpleasant
things about his profession, one particular thing
that bothers him is that many of his recent autop
sies have been chemical-related deaths.
“It’s pretty bad when we have to have people
patrolling the hallways in our schools,” Lee says.
“What they should do is bring them in here and
make them watch me. That way I can ask them if
they want me to cut them like that. If so, then
they can keep on doing what they are doing.”
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