Why do coroners reports take so much longer to prepare than medical test results?
Dear Straight Dope: Why does it take a couple of days to get the medical test results that will tell you what’s going to kill you, but many many weeks for the coroner to determine what actually did kill you? Also, is it my imagination or is there a direct ratio between the length of time to get the coroner’s results and the fame of the deceased? —Mark G., Hallowell, Maine SDSTAFF Hawkeye replies: The discrepancy you note isn’t really a discrepancy — you’re comparing apples and oranges. Medical test results and coroner’s reports are prepared for entirely different purposes by different groups of people using different sorts of data. Medical test results come from a hospital’s pathology lab. Some tests are fairly quick to run, such as a CBC (complete blood count), which includes counts and analysis of red and white blood cells and platelets. A test of the blood’s serum chemistry is also quite quick. Other tests, such as bacteriology, take longer due to the need to isolate and culture spe
