01x07 - Dark Waters

[bunniefuu]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR A mystery man is found in a watery grave.

RYAN MCCOUNAUGHEY We couldn't find

any point of entry or foot markings

into the water from the victim.

NARRATOR To uncover the truth, Dr. G

must conduct her autopsy as the man's body decomposes

before her eyes.

JAN GARAVAGLIA People really don't like

dealing with decomposed bodies.

They're green, they're bloated, and they smell.

NARRATOR Then, every mother's nightmare

comes true for one Texas woman when her son dies in daycare.

JAN GARAVAGLIA The ER doctor was suspicious and felt

that this was a strangulation.

NARRATOR Can Dr. G help police catch the suspected k*ller?

And later, a tourist dies suddenly

after a bitter argument, leaving a family wracked with guilt.

We blamed ourselves.

We completely blamed ourselves.

We feel we basically k*lled him.

NARRATOR Is rage to blame?

There's all sorts of research on how

stress is a negative influence on your body.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,

shocking revelations.

These are the everyday cases of Dr. G, Medical Examiner.

Dr. G's investigations don't stop at the autopsy table.

Sometimes, she must simply reach out

to those who knew the deceased to get the full story to make

sense of what she finds.

Hi, this is Dr. Garavaglia at the medical examiner's

office in Orlando.

NARRATOR When she does, she often discovers

that how an individual died isn't nearly as

remarkable as how they lived.

On a March afternoon, a passerby sees

a body floating face down in a pond

near Orlando's John Young Parkway.

Orlando police and fire department

EMTs rush to the scene.

[SIRENS WAILING]

From the truck, we can see two retention ponds.

One of them appeared to have a body floating.

NARRATOR The retention pond itself

is a three foot deep pool designed

to collect rainwater runoff.

RYAN MCCOUNAUGHEY The victim was in the retention pond,

about to feet from the shore.

So I just waded out approximately to my waist.

I was able to draw the victim closer to me,

and I was able to notice that the victim

was non-viable at that time.

NARRATOR In EMS terminology, non-viable means dead.

A call goes out to Dr. G's morgue,

and a medical investigator is dispatched.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Near the retention pond, police find a makeshift shelter.

After securing the area, they make note of its contents.

The medical investigator estimates that the body has

been in the water under the hot Florida Sun for over a day,

and the body has begun to decompose.

Decomposing bodies often emit an odor that can

induce gagging and fainting.

So Dr. G and her assistants, Dave and Sandy,

must deal with this case in a separate area

of the morgue known simply as the decomp room.

One of the things that keeps people out of this field,

they really don't like dealing with decomposed bodies.

They're green, they're bloated, and they smell.

Honestly, they don't bother me one little bit.

And I don't smell a thing.

I'm the one that has to figure this out,

and I don't smell a thing.

The way he's coming out of the pond, he's got his shoes on.

NARRATOR But a decomposed body poses

many more problems for medical examiners than just smell.

Minnie and Mickey skating on the front.

NARRATOR Autopsying a decomposing body

is a race against nature's grim clock.

The moment we die, our bodies begin a metamorphosis.

Our tissues and fluids start to decay,

to break down into their fundamental elements.

There's two things that are going down.

There are the enzymes that are breaking down the tissues,

and then there's the bacteria.

The autolysis is basically the enzymes breaking it down.

And so anything that's high, like your spleen tends to break

down very quickly and just gets almost soupy, the pancreas,

there's a lot of enzymes in there, that tends

to break down very quickly.

But then there's the bacteria doing their job too,

because your bacteria is all through your gastrointestinal

tract, and then once you die, they have free reign,

and they kind of take over, going to a lot of your tissues

and start forming gases, and that's what

bloats up a lot of your tissue.

So you have a lot of different things going on.

It gets to the point we're under the microscope,
[ … ]

you can hardly even tell what's what.

NARRATOR In addition to the obstacle of decomposition,

the most obvious possible cause of death, drowning,

can't be ruled in or out.

There's really no good one test for drowning.

It's a lot of little things, plus the circumstances.

NARRATOR Though a drowning victim would have water

in the lungs, so would a body that

had simply lain in the water for a significant amount of time.

This is because the natural movement of the water

works fluid into the lungs.

So the mystery is, why is he there?

Why is this man in the water?

Is he a victim of possibly as*ault?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR But Dr. G's first step is

to make sense of what police and investigators found

at the scene.

JAN GARAVAGLIA His camp, which was yards from the pond,

is described as a by tent with a bed,

a desk, shelves for clothing and personal items.

This is, I guess, all, you know, just outside.

Several bottles of mouthwash.

ID card was in a billfold.

I mean, he doesn't look like a transient.

His beard is well kept.

His head is kept very short.

His hair, appears that he shaves his head.

And that kind of goes along with how

they find his little transient camp, very neat.

I mean, how many transients do you know that use mouthwash

and have shelves for their clothing outside?

Sounds like an interesting fella.

Sounds like I might've liked him.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Aside from the name on the ID

found at the nearby shelter, Dr. G hasn't much to go on.

You never know why these people are transient.

NARRATOR She has no medical history,

no background, no witnesses.

It's not even clear if Mark Thompson is his real name.

Yet somehow, she must accomplish a full medical identification.

Now, the one thing, I don't mind the decomp, but--

and I will completely change clothes so the decomp

smell will be off of me.

But I have hairspray on, and that hairspray

tends to collect the smell of the this decomp in my hair.

So that's why we're gonna cover my hair.

Because other people will be bothered by it, not me.

So what we see is some bloating, greening discoloration.

Some normal Caucasian skin can be still seen.

Really well kept beard and mustache, very nicely trimmed.

I don't see any--

any scars.

OK, look for tattoos.

He still has finger ridges.

We should be able to do fingerprints on this fella.

NARRATOR This is a lucky break.

Usually, soaking in water for days, the skin of the hand

splits and slips off, what medical examiners

call degloving.

But in this case, the skin of the fingers

has only just begun to peel.

See how the skin is coming off his hand?

And so the whole degloving, you can just pull your--

eventually, the skin will all come off from the hand.

So his have not, and so we can still print him.

NARRATOR As to the rest of the body,

it is not too decayed to check for g*nsh*t wounds,

knife wounds, or other trauma.

Surprisingly, while immersion in water

will saturate and swell some tissues,

it also slows the rate of decomposition.

Very tense, firm skin.

That's what you see from the bloating,

that gas is formed from the bacteria in the body

and start bloating it.

What's happened now is the bacteria

has gone through his body forming gases,

so basically, all he's got in his vessels are just gas,

and no longer he has any blood.

So what we're gonna have to do is collect some muscle

and we'll do organs.

We're gonna have to check different things for toxicology

here.

We're gonna need more tissue.

OK, left lung is .

NARRATOR While the blood is no longer viable for many

of the tests routinely run at the forensic laboratory,

partially decomposed organs could still reveal the presence

of dr*gs in laboratory tests.

But the results even from these could be inconclusive.

Only when she cuts open the stomach to examine the contents

does Dr. G get a tantalizing and unusual clue.

I don't know.

Mouthwash.

Smell that.

His stomach and his stomach contents smell like mouthwash.

It's not a bad odor at all.

And I wonder if that--
[ … ]

I hope we doesn't drink the mouthwash to get drunk.

It can get you drank.

A lot of them have fairly high alcohol content.

NARRATOR The bottles of mouthwash found

in the man's tent may not have been for personal hygiene

after all.

And yet, as she reaches the end of the autopsy,

the dissected organs have yielded few answers.

So far, there is no trauma internally or externally.

NARRATOR Whatever caused this man's death

is still a complete mystery.

We know that he so far hasn't been beaten.

We know that we don't see any specific natural disease.

Now, keep in mind, the decomposition could mask

some subtle natural disease.

But he didn't have coronary artery disease.

His heart's really not that large.

His lungs don't have horrible disease.

There's no tumor anywhere.

There's a lot of things we've ruled out.

We just haven't ruled a lot in.

NARRATOR The next clues will have to come from toxicology

tests, and from police as they continue

their search for a positive identification of the body.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues, a tip from the past

gives Dr. G a surprising portrait of life this man led.

He seemed like kind of an interesting fella.

NARRATOR And later, a sudden death of an infant.

Was it an accident or a homicide?

We see too many kids that get k*lled by caretakers,

be they parents, or stepparents, or siblings, or providers.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Dr. G has finished the autopsy

of a body found floating in a retention

pond by an Orlando highway.

But because most of the tissues are decomposed,

her findings are sparse.

Her biggest clue is an odor emanating from the man's

stomach contents.

His stomach contents smell like mouthwash.

NARRATOR But despite the decomposition,

Dr. G was able to secure partial fingerprints,

and within two days of the autopsy,

the fingerprint experts have done their work.

The man found in the retention pond

is indeed Mark Thompson, as the wallet

found at the camp suggested.

And he was living in the makeshift shelter

police found under the highway.

But with the confirmation of his identity,

the mystery only deepens.

Thompson was fairly young, only years old,

and according to a college friend,

was not a typical transient.

In fact, he was a bright, college-trained

commercial artist from a middle class family in Wisconsin.

Mark was definitely that stand out or stand alone individual.

He was a phenomenal, phenomenal piece of work.

NARRATOR Ron McDonald met Mark Thompson in art school

in Denver in .

RON MCDONALD Anything he picked up just became golden.

There wasn't anything he couldn't do, any medium

that he couldn't handle.

And anything that he tried, any attempt,

it just came out great.

NARRATOR But it's a long way from painting class

to the retention pond by the John Young Parkway, a path that

begins when Thompson drops out of art school a year

after enrolling.

For several years, McDonald loses

track of his talented friend, until McDonald moves to Florida

in to take up surfing.

But although Thompson seems as friendly

as he was in art school, it's a changed man with whom

McDonald renews his friendship.

Those changes become all too clear

after McDonald helps Thompson get a few jobs

as a freelance artist.

He would come to me and go, you know, your friend,

he's a phenomenal artist, you know, is a great craftsman,

but he's got a problem, OK?

He has-- he has a drinking problem,

and it affects his work.

So in that aspect, and from what I understand,

that kind of burned his bridges every place he worked.

Even though he could-- he could produce and put out the talent,

he had this problem that kept reappearing.

NARRATOR When McDonald raises the subject of drinking,

Mark pushes the subject aside.

According to McDonald, Mark later confides to him

that he has a bipolar disorder, and that he

is unable to overcome the obstacles of his illness.

For the longest time, he was--

I think he was worried about maintaining

a status, the job, the to , the apartment, the car.

When he realized that he didn't need the apartment and the car,

jobs became less important to him.

He became my homeless friend.

[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ … ]

NARRATOR That's when Thompson takes refuge

in his homemade cabin at the retention pond

near the John Young Parkway.

RON MCDONALD He would not stay stumbling

drunk, smelly, homeless, OK?

Didn't go round in tatters and tags.

Didn't stand on the corner begging

for food, begging for money.

Wasn't him.

NARRATOR But despite Mark's unique lifestyle, none of this

explains how he wound up face down in the retention pond.

Back at the morgue, Dr. G has received the reports

from the toxicity tests.

Tests on Thompson's liver tissue have revealed an alcohol level

of just below %, or ..

But even that figure is not reliable because

of the advanced state of decay.

Do I think it was accurate?

No, because we're checking it in the liver.

It may be falsely elevated.

Maybe he had no alcohol and it was just

all due from decomposition.

NARRATOR When the bacteria in the body

ran loose during decomposition, one of the materials

they produce is alcohol.

So the test results don't necessarily prove anything

about his blood alcohol level.

You know, another possibility is that maybe that's lower

than he normally has, and he has an alcohol withdrawal seizure.

I don't know.

You know, it's hard.

We don't have all the pieces.

I felt the preponderance of the evidence

showed that there was no foul play.

He's found in the water with no evidence of trauma.

NARRATOR In the end, Dr. G must fall back on the one solid clue"], index ,…}

she found during the autopsy, the large amount of mouthwash

in Thompson's stomach.

Some of the people who have a hard time getting alcohol

will drink mouthwash because of the high alcohol content.

My investigators said there were numerous bottles of mouthwash

in his little tent.

The mouthwash was % alcohol, because we had a lot

of still those alcohol bottles.

It was off brand.

It looks like he bought--

I think that it even said $. for a big model,

and % alcohol.

NARRATOR At this point, Dr. G is

able to reconstruct the simple tragedy

of Mark Thompson's death.

Although he has found a way of life that

seems to be satisfying, according to his friends,

Thompson also appears to be occasionally

drinking to excess.

Well-kept and tidy as he is, he keeps an abundant supply

of the cheapest possible source, mouthwash, which is inexpensive"], index ,…}

and has a relatively high alcohol content.

On the day of his death, Thompson

has consumed a large amount of his mouthwash.

Either restless, or possibly because his bladder is full,

he stumbles from his tent and walks

toward the retention pond.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JAN GARAVAGLIA Looks like he was just drunk

and fell in the water.

No trauma, no foul play that we can find.

So it will be ruled as just an accidental drowning.

I think maybe there's a few pieces of the puzzle

that we're not quite sure of, but what

we're sure of is it didn't look like any foul play came

his way.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR A clear conclusion, Mark Thompson

died as he lived in the world he carved

out for himself on the fringes of mainstream society.

He seemed like kind of an interesting fella.

He actually had an article in his back pocket

that I pulled out from "Reader's Digest."

It sounded really interesting.

I think it was something on nutrition

that I wanted to read.

So I might've liked the guy.

NARRATOR Next on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner"

a dead baby and a story that isn't adding up.

It wasn't making sense.

The marks aren't making sense.

NARRATOR Coming up later on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner,"

an Orlando vacation for a British family

concludes with a trip to Dr. G's morgue.

I kept saying, pinch me, I'm dreaming.

This is a nightmare.

It's not really happening.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Few tragedies are more agonizing than the death

of a child.

For Dr. G, a child's death is both

a tragedy and an assignment.

No case requires closer attention,

because scrutiny from Dr. G can trap the guilty or clear
[ … ]

the innocent.

That difficult task was at the heart of a case

that Dr. G covered while serving as medical examiner in Texas

during the s.

For Charlotte Kansler, the day that would change her life

forever began with a morning ritual familiar to many working

parents.

Heading off to her job, she leaves her and / year old

son, Danny, in the hands of a trusted babysitter

who cares for several neighborhood

children on a regular basis.

It is the last time she will ever see her little boy alive.

Just a few hours after Danny is handed over,

police receive a panic -- call.

Babysitter Hilary Turner claims to have

found Danny in his playpen unconscious and not breathing.

Turner tells police that the death was a freak accident,

and that she simply found Danny already unconscious when

she came in to check on him.

But when the ER doctor examines Danny's body,

he makes a far more troubling diagnosis.

The emergency room doctor was concerned

because of the trauma patterns that were on the head and neck.

There were some bruising around the neck,

and it was just inconsistent with like, a natural process.

So it was something that he couldn't explain.

DOCTOR Still very concerned about the exam findings.

JAN GARAVAGLIA The ER doctor was suspicious and felt

that this was a strangulation, and that he

had told police that it was a strangulation death.

NARRATOR Based on the findings of the ER doctor,

police bring in Hilary Turner on suspicion of m*rder.

But for a formal m*rder charge to be levied,

a ruling of homicide must be declared

by the medical examiner's office,

a task that falls to Dr. G.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When Danny's body arrives at the morgue,

Dr. G can see right away what alarmed the ER doctor.

Along with an abrasion and neck bruises,

Danny bears the telltale signs of asphyxiation.

The baby had petechiae of its skin of its face.

The petechiae are the little capillaries that bleed,

and you get the little pinpoint hemorrhages.

Had them all over his face, and he had them

in the conjunctiva of his eye, you know, you

look down on the clear part?

He had all the little hemorrhages in there.

NARRATOR Often during strangulation, blood continues

to pump into the head through the arteries,

but the strangling force stops blood from freely

flowing back out of the head.

Like over filling a balloon, the resulting pressure

ruptures the small vessels, causing

the symptomatic petechiae.

But what exactly can Dr. G deduce from those clues?

What or who caused Danny's strangulation?

JAN GARAVAGLIA The only thing I knew

is that the woman running the daycare

found this child unresponsive.

We didn't have exactly what her story was.

I didn't quite understand what the circumstances were.

So things were just a little hazy.

STEVEN HANSON It's unfortunate, but in this line of work,

we see too many kids that are k*lled

by caretakers, be they parents, or step parents, or siblings,

or providers.

NARRATOR Recent statistics indicate

that % of all children in America

suffer from some form of abuse, and as many as ,

can die from abuse in one year.

So a lot of these cases come in as nothing,

and we find somebody did something to the kid.

NARRATOR One of Dr. G's first steps

is to read her investigator's field report,

but the report doesn't describe the nature of the accident

that babysitter Turner claims took place.

Given the ER doctor's findings, and the fact that Turner was

the only adult with access to the little boy,

police find Turner's story hard to swallow.

Any adult that was within that household in charge

of supervision of these children automatically, you know,

can be termed as suspects.

And our job is to come back and find facts

and evidence to be able to support

our beliefs on our allegations.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Knowing that the only thing standing

between the babysitter and a m*rder trial

are her own findings, Dr. G makes no snap judgments.

While the police and the babysitter

wait for her decision, Dr. G makes it clear

that she won't be rushed.

She declined to make a ruling or determination of what

the cause of death was because there were

some areas of concern on both sides, on the medical side,

and on the law enforcement side, as to really

what may have caused the death of this child.

JAN GARAVAGLIA I do a lot of autopsies.

I do a lot of autopsies on children who are m*rder*d.
[ … ]

You don't really need to strangle a baby to k*ll it.

That's not usually how people k*ll babies.

It didn't-- it wasn't making sense.

The marks weren't making sense.

NARRATOR But the autopsy findings

are still not enough to put the remaining

pieces of this puzzle together.

And that's when Dr. G decides on an unusual plan

to get to the truth.

First, she calls in her field investigator.

At that point, I told my investigator,

go back to that crime scene with the police

and make sure we have her story correct,

because it does not make sense, these marks on this child.

Normally, medical examiners officers

don't send an investigator to a scene

when the body's already been removed

unless there's a reason for it.

This was obviously an excellent reason.

We can't do everything in the autopsy room.

I have to correlate that with what's found at the scene.

I have to sometimes determine, is the story right,

or is the story wrong?

Do these findings corroborate this story,

or is this telling us this person lied?

NARRATOR On the orders of Dr. G,

investigators arrive at the home of Hilary Turner,

the scene of Danny's death.

Their purpose, re-enact the baby's

death to see if it could have been

an accident, as Turner claims.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Coming up on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner,"

will the recreation of the scene concerning the baby

sitter's innocence or guilt?

JAN GARAVAGLIA I want her, in her own words,

to say what happened and how she found the baby,

and I want pictures.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Dr. G is trying to determine

what happened to a -month-old boy who died in daycare.

According to the babysitter, Hilary Turner,

his death was an accident.

But police think she could have k*lled him.

On the orders of Dr. G, Turner's story

is about to be revealed and put to the test in a recreation

of the death scene.

JAN GARAVAGLIA I told my investigator,

I want her, in her own words, to say what happened

and how she found the baby, and I want pictures to recreate

the scene, so I can tell and look at what she's saying has

happened to that baby and correlate it

to what I'm finding at autopsy.

NARRATOR Now, with the police and the field investigators

observing, Hilary Turner tells her whole story

for the first time.

Investigators follow along.

DETECTIVE We put the crib back in the position

that she said it was in, and we used a large doll

just to represent a child.

NARRATOR Turner explains that Danny Kansler is

an overly active toddler who often manages

to climb out of his crib.

Turner, who has other children in her care,

tells Danny's mother that she needs

a way to keep Danny from wandering around unsupervised.

Together, they come up with a seemingly simple

measure to solve the problem.

STEVEN HANSON So they came to a decision

that they would put something over the top of the playpen

so that the kid couldn't get out.

And was kind of a bed frame that had a springs drawn

across it, the kind of thing that you

would put a mattress on top of.

He'd wake up, he'd try to get out, he couldn't, he'd cry,

and then the woman would hear him and come out, lift it off,

and everything would be fine.

NARRATOR Next, Turner tells them

that a plastic tub filled with toys

was sitting on an end table near the crib.

She then claims to have left the room so Danny could nap.

She didn't even think about the rest of the room.

Had never been a factor, never been

anything to think of before.

The toys could have all been on the floor,

they could have been in the playpen,

but now, this is where they were when she left the room.

NARRATOR The investigators take photographs of the crib

and surrounding area from different angles, then based

on Turner's accounts, they reconfigure

the scene to mirror how it appeared when she returned.

STEVEN HANSON She comes back into the room,

she sees a tub of toys on the bed frame,

and she sees the child hung up between the bed frame

and the edge of the playpen.

NARRATOR Horrified, Turner claims to have removed

Danny immediately, and after attempting to revive him,

called --.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Now, back at the morgue, Dr. G examines
[ … ]

this new field evidence.

Does the babysitter's description match the injuries

seen during the autopsy?

She said when she found that baby,

she had the metal spring was entrapped under the child

on one side of the neck, and the playpen edge was entrapping

the front of the neck.

STEVEN HANSON Dr. G saw marks on the kid's neck,

and on the back of his neck, and on his head.

This is the kind of pattern that you

would expect to see then if that child was in that position.

Everything now seems to make sense.

The injury pattern is consistent with the story based on what

we were able to re-enact.

How she explained the death matched perfectly

to what I found at autopsy.

NARRATOR The re-enactment photographs also

enable Dr. G to discover the most likely series of events

that led to baby Danny's death.

Danny wakes soon after Turner leaves and sees the tub

full of toys just out of reach.

With the surprising strength of a determined child,

he forces the bed frame up a few inches

and squeezes into the opening.

As he reaches to grab a toy, the tub slides onto the bed frame,

making it heavier still, and trapping

Danny against the railing of the crib.

You could really understand how he tried to tiptoe,

and the metal hit the back of his head pretty hard,

because the tub came over and hit the metal

and then it slid down.

STEVEN HANSON And it was logical

as we went through it, that yes, this very well

could have happened this way.

And it seemed to be consistent with everything

that we'd heard.

So what originally was felt to be

a strangulation, possible m*rder or homicide, a strangulation

homicide, actually turned out to be

an accidental death with entrapment and suffocation.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR With the truth in hand, Dr. G calls the police

and tells them to stop their criminal investigation.

Hilary Turner is innocent.

After Dr. G presents a full and detailed explanation

of the forensic findings, all charges against Hillary Turner

are dropped.

We were totally satisfied, and are satisfied today,

that the daycare provider is not responsible

for any criminal activity that led to the death of the child.

JAN GARAVAGLIA My medical investigator

did a great job for me.

I thought the sheriff's office did a great job letting

her speak in her own words, taking

the key pictures that I needed.

And I think the whole team did a great job in finding

out what the truth was.

NARRATOR All too often, it is the medical examiner's duty

to see that a guilty party gets punished.

Putting the tragic case of Danny Kansler Dr. G

had the rewarding task of seeing to it

that the innocent went free.

The mother came in months after the child had died

to bring me pictures of the funeral

and to talk about that she was thankful that I had cleared

her friend of any wrongdoing.

It's great when you can clear somebody too, to say,

you know what, her story is completely true.

And that's a great feeling that you can clear somebody also.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Coming up on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner,"

could the sudden death of a tourist

be linked to a life of stress and anger?

We loved him so much.

He was a lovely guy, but you know,

he had a bit of a-- had a bit of a temper on him.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Every year, millions of tourists

invade Orlando, Florida, the theme park capital of America.

For most people, it's a place where relaxation

and family fun are a natural.

But for a known curmudgeon like Michael Banks, having fun

can be a struggle.

The -year-old pest control expert

has just arrived from his hometown of London, England.

Traveling with his wife, Marion, and daughter, Elizabeth,

he is about to embark on his first vacation in years.

Michael's sister, an Orlando resident,

has spent months trying to convince

Michael to take some time off.

Finally, she succeeds, and gladly meets

the family at the airport.

I was looking forward to my brother and his family coming

over for the first time to have a vacation with us here

in Florida.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Michael and his family spend the first day in Orlando

enjoying the sights.

But on the second day, Michael decides the admission price

to a theme park is too high.
[ … ]

He's so upset he abandons his family at the gate

and walks miles back to the hotel in a huff.

It's a typical reaction for Michael.

Nothing was ever simple with my dad.

The simplest thing, if he was fixing--

is he was changing a plug, everyone would be involved.

Bring me the screwdriver, make me a cup of tea.

It was-- everything was drama.

NARRATOR On day three of the trip, one drama escalates.

At a restaurant, Elizabeth orders Michael a cola.

Michael thinks the restaurant is overcharging

for their soft drinks.

Did such a stupid thing.

He just decided that day he was gonna be difficult, basically,

and say, well, I'm not having that.

And I said, but you always say you

don't want it when we go for a meal,

and we always get you one.

And he says, you're all picking on me.

I'm not staying here to listen to this.

NARRATOR The cola incident intensifies

into a full-blown family argument,

and Michael storms out in a rage.

Well, I'm going.

He was a lovely guy, but you know, he had a bit of a-- had

a bit of a temper on him.

NARRATOR In a huff, Michael has decided to walk

the miles back to the hotel.

minutes after leaving the restaurant,

witnesses see Michael approach a bus stop

and collapse to the ground.

A woman calls .

EMS workers tried desperately to revive Michael,

but it's too late.

Michael dies by the side of the road.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

A few hours later, Michael Banks's body

is brought to the morgue.

Bystanders called --, who responded.

They transported the victim to the hospital,

where a code was worked until he was pronounced.

NARRATOR His pockets hold a credit card and key,

enough to lead Dr. G's staff to his empty hotel room

and locate his sister.

Elizabeth and Marion are out enjoying the theme parks

under the Florida Sun, unaware that their lives

will never be the same.

That evening, it is up to his sister

to deliver the terrible news.

Michael is dead.

I had to wait for five hours for them to come home,

and it was five hours of agony.

It was just awful.

It was so-- it was just, you couldn't believe it.

It was unbelievable.

It was like a complete nightmare that this had happened to--

to my dad.

And he was only .

We blamed ourselves.

We completely blamed ourselves for the first few days.

We thought we basically k*lled him.

We left him to walk home.

NARRATOR They spend the night agonizing over one question,

could the aggravation from their argument,

coupled with the heat and stress of the long walk home,

have done Michael into?

I feel I'm gonna wake up for two days.

I kept saying, pinch me, I'm dreaming.

This is a nightmare.

It's not really happening.

NARRATOR For Dr. G, Michael's death isn't about blame

or guilt. His story can only be told through science.

The only hope for an answer to the family's question

is a full autopsy.

We have yet another one of our tourists here in Orlando.

For whatever reason, he's walking

along the side of the road, and he's found dead.

NARRATOR Dr. G examines Michael's body,

looking for evidence of external trauma.

Did you get a picture?

NARRATOR An undetected injury, perhaps caused

by a large object, is one possible explanation

for an abrupt death.

I've done that external exam.

I don't see any trauma on him, anterior, posterior,

anything about his head.

But of course, we can't tell until for sure we

get into the body and do the autopsy.

NARRATOR Ruling out trauma, Dr. G knows what to look for next.

JAN GARAVAGLIA Usually, the big three

when we're looking at somebody walking,

talking with no symptoms and just collapsing is the heart,

blood clots to the lungs, and then some catastrophic thing

in your brain, like a bleed, a large bleed in your brain.

And those are the three things we look at.

NARRATOR Dr. G begins the autopsy with a Y incision

opening Michael's chest cavity.

So far, everything looks good.

As we suspected, there's no evidence of trauma, at least

in his body cavities, chest abdominal cavities.
[ … ]

OK, I'll go ahead and take the heart and lungs out,

then I'll let you in.

Of course, he is from England here on vacation,

so possibly a pulmonary embolisc is another reason.

NARRATOR Pulmonary embolism can often be deadly.

They sometimes strike airline passengers after long flights.

Sitting in one position for many hours,

blood clots can form in the leg, break loose,

and travel through the circulatory system,

often with fatal consequences.

Those blood clots get clogged up in the lungs,

so then you can go down really fast.

We don't have the brain yet.

NARRATOR Michael's lungs reveal he's a smoker,

but there is no evidence of clots.

.

NARRATOR He did not succumb to a pulmonary embolism.

Let's see, a rib fracture from CPR.

NARRATOR Ruling out the first of three likely culprits,

Dr. G considers the concerns of Michael's family.

They want to know, could his agitated state

from the argument or the long walk home

have contributed to his demise?

She continues the autopsy with this in mind.

You know, that's a big global question on how

stress affects your body.

And there's all sorts of research

on how stress is a negative influence on your body.

NARRATOR Dr. G removes and weighs the heart.

It's heavier than it should be.

JAN GARAVAGLIA .

OK.

NARRATOR A sign of high blood pressure.

She begins the dissection.

JAN GARAVAGLIA So far, the left anterior descending has

just minimal atherosclerosis.

Nothing that should cause him problems.

Looking at the right coronary artery, this is the aorta.

This is the coronary artery coming off the aorta.

And so far, that looks good too.

That's good and crunchy.

That's not looking good.

NARRATOR Slicing carefully through Michael's

coronary artery, Dr. G discovers a deadly amount

of the plaque buildup.

JAN GARAVAGLIA Here's the coronary artery starting out.

You can see it's very nice.

And then we can see a little bit here.

Not looking good there.

It's really not looking good there.

Appears to be that's probably his cause of death right there.

NARRATOR Dr. G holds in her hands

the number one k*ller in the country, a diseased heart.

Michael's coronary artery is % blocked,

leaving only a narrow hole for the blood to get through.

In that tiny opening, a small particle of plaque

is lodged, blocking blood flow almost completely.

It's a deadly scenario that allows

Dr. G to understand what happened

during Michael's final walk.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

At AM, the family sits down to breakfast

at a restaurant buffet.

The argument begins.

Yes, it is a big deal.

NARRATOR Michael's anger gets the best of him,

and he marches off in a rage.

Well, I'm going.

NARRATOR Walking down the street, his heart needs oxygen,

and it's having a hard time getting it.

The right coronary artery was supplying

a large part of his heart.

That was narrowed down percent.

Only % opening left.

And it appeared that there was an acute little clot

filling that.

NARRATOR Michael's heart is entering the danger zone.

The buildup, which has taken years to accumulate,

is finally blocking the flow of blood.

Starved for oxygen, the heart muscle enters into arrhythmia.

It begins to spasm erratically.

It was irritated from the lack of oxygen.

It can't beat the normal beat, and it just starts quivering.

And that's what he had.

And then if you're quivering, you're not pumping,

and that means no blood going to your organs, particularly

your brain, and then you collapse.

NARRATOR As witnesses report, Michael

simply falls to the ground.

His heart has stopped dead.

He could have died anywhere.

He had some severe heart disease.

NARRATOR Michael's family is relieved to hear Dr. G say it.

His heart attack was not the result of the fight

they had earlier that day.

After years of cholesterol buildup,

a heart attack was inevitable.

We loved him.

We loved him so much.

But at the end of the day, he was
[ … ]

the only one who could stop the cigarettes, stop the bad food.

We couldn't force him to eat healthy meals.

We couldn't force him to stop smoking.

I wish we could have done.

JAN GARAVAGLIA I think a little preventive care on this man

would have gone a long way.

NARRATOR As is often the case, Dr. G's findings

bring new perspective to a dead man's family.

[INAUDIBLE] in case you want to look at it someday.

This could've happened any time.

This could've happened in England.

I mean, he only had % narrowing.

I mean, he only had % of that lumen left.

There was very little blood getting through that.

And so it could have happened at any time.

NARRATOR Her words bring the women sobering comfort.

Dr. G, she was the most amazing woman.

I've never, ever in my whole lifetime met anyone as amazing

as her, that sat down and explained everything to us,

drew diagrams for us, explained the meaning of the words.

And she was so kind.

ELIZABETH BANKS She had time.

She had time.

MARION And if more people gave time to other people,

then there'd be a lot more understanding

and healing in this world.

I think we got healed because of the words we heard.

[MUSIC PLAYING]