Episode 26: You Can’t Judge a Liver by Its Cover

Episode 26 takes a short detour; it’s about preconceptions, surprises, and the times when what we expect to find turns out to be completely wrong.

The Case of “Harry”

Early in my career as a coroner, I worked a hit-and-run involving a man I’ll call Harry. He was well known to nearly every law enforcement officer in Vigo County. Harry had battled alcoholism for years, been arrested countless times, and had lost his driver’s license long ago. He got around on a bicycle, until one night when he was struck and killed by a car whose driver fled the scene.

During the autopsy, several officers stopped by, shaking their heads. “Doc, Harry’s liver must  have been toast,” one said. It was the assumption that, decades of drinking, surely his liver was destroyed.

Except it wasn’t.

A Perfectly Normal Liver

When we examined Harry’s liver, it looked as healthy as one from the grocery meat counter — smooth, firm, and deep brown, not the pale, nodular surface of a cirrhotic organ. Under the microscope, it was pristine. No scarring, no fatty deposits. Nothing.

Genetics can play strange games with the human body. Some people can drink heavily for years without liver failure, while others develop severe disease after relatively short exposure. Each body tells its own story.

When Looks Deceive

For months afterward, every time a police officer who visited the morgue and saw Harry’s labeled tissue container on the shelf, they’d say, “I remember that guy, bet his liver was awful.” And I’d tell them, “Actually, it was perfect.”

Sometimes, what we think we’ll find isn’t there. Other times, a person looks fine on the outside but is catastrophically broken inside. In one motor-vehicle case I worked, the victim appeared barely injured, until the autopsy revealed extensive fractured ribs, a ruptured aorta, and massive internal trauma.

Lesson of the Day

The word autopsy literally means “to see for oneself.” You have to look, carefully, completely, and without assumptions. What’s outside doesn’t always match what’s inside, and that truth applies far beyond the morgue.

Until next time, this is a reminder that every body, and every story, deserves to be seen for what it really is.