Sx01 - How Not to Die: A Dr. G Special

[bunniefuu]

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

NARRATOR Welcome to Dr. G's World.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

No, he's lost a lot of blood.

All righty, go.

NARRATOR This is the district morgue in Orlando, Florida--

He looks a little pale to me.

No tumors, no hemorrhage, no obvious signs of trauma.

NARRATOR --where every day, Dr. Jan Garavaglia

solves the mysteries of the dead.

This is an entrance g*nsh*t wound.

It's a clear cause of death.

NARRATOR It can be extremely difficult and emotionally

challenging work, but it also provides

an incredibly unique perspective on how we live and die.

So there is a lot you can do to prevent

these kind of deaths.

By working with the dead for years,

it's changed the way I live my life.

And I see how people die.

And I see that a vast majority of the deaths

are premature and don't have to occur.

NARRATOR In fact, over , autopsies

have taught Dr. G secrets on how people can live longer,

safer, and healthier lives--

insights that could give many of us

a chance to actually cheat death.

What I want is to teach people how not to end up in the morgue

prematurely by looking at the lessons

of how others have d*ed.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

It's a busy day in the morgue.

We got [INAUDIBLE].

We got homicides.

We got unknown deaths.

We have drug overdoses.

We have a woman who might be su1c1de,

might be a natural, maybe accident.

We've got-- I don't know, all sorts of stuff.

NARRATOR Dr. G's cases run the gamut from the ordinary--

I bet he had a heart att*ck.

NARRATOR --to the bizarre.

If you look on his brain, there's

also a yellowish discoloration.

NARRATOR Some of these deaths are

impossible to predict or prevent,

but far too many could be avoided.

A little preventive medicine may have not

caused his trip to the morgue.

NARRATOR Drawing on Dr. G's extensive case files

and based on her recent book, this special

will reveal the top five reasons people land in the morgue

and how you can avoid being one of them.

When I say the top five causes of death,

you may think heart disease, cancer.

But really what we're talking about here are the reasons

for those conditions--

behaviors and exposures that account for a large percentage

of the premature deaths.

What I find shocking and tragic in the United States is that so

many people die not because of something they're born with

or unavoidable diseases, it's that so many people

die because of the way they've chosen

to live their life and bad decisions

they've made about their life.

Well, there are five top K*llers that we

can take steps to avoid.

Unfortunately, the person in this first case

missed that opportunity.

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]

NARRATOR It's PM on a Thursday evening,

and -year-old Leonard Fletcher is on his way home from work.

Lenny's kind of a guy down on his luck, and things

aren't going well for him.

NARRATOR Lately, Leonard's been having trouble

keeping up with his bills.

It sounds like he was having some financial problems.

They had turned off his electricity in his house.

NARRATOR With no power to cook a hot meal,

Leonard makes himself a sandwich and goes to bed.

No one realizes anything is amiss until the next morning

when Leonard doesn't show up for work.

His co-workers got concerned, went over to his house,

and noticed that his car was there.

They called the police.

They find him sleeping in his bed.

They thought maybe that he had a pulse.

EMS brings him to the emergency room.

They tried to revive him, but he was dead on arrival.

NARRATOR Exactly what k*lled Leonard Fletcher so

suddenly is a complete mystery.

But his friends and family are counting on Dr. G to find out.

As a first step, she reviews Lenny's medical records

and also places a call to his estranged wife.

She told us that he has a history of illicit drug

use, cocaine in the past.

NARRATOR This is a critical clue.

Cocaine is known to trigger sudden heart att*cks

and can even lead to stroke.

Armed with this new information, Dr. G begins her autopsy
[ … ]

by looking at Leonard's heart.

Using a Y-incision, she cuts across the chest

and down to the pelvic bone.

And a quick glance at Leonard's heart

is all it takes to see that he was in serious trouble.

He has an enlarged heart.

That heart, boy.

That is a big heart.

NARRATOR An enlarged heart, or cardiomyopathy,

is a potentially fatal condition where the heart muscle

becomes overly thickened, predisposing

it to a cardiac arrhythmia.

If Leonard was using cocaine with an enlarged heart,

it could have spelled disaster.

But Dr. G won't know if this was the case until she

sees the toxicology report.

We gotta wait and make sure we have all our facts.

NARRATOR In the meantime, she presses on

with her internal exam.

And it isn't long before she makes

another shocking discovery.

His muscles had somewhat of a pinkish discoloration to them.

NARRATOR Dr. G recognizes this abnormality right away.

It's a classic symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning.

But instead of providing answers,

this finding only raises more questions.

I don't have any history of why he'd have carbon monoxide.

NARRATOR As with the cocaine, the only way

to determine if Lenny has been exposed to carbon monoxide

is to test for it in his blood and other bodily fluids.

For now, exactly how and why Lenny d*ed

will remain a mystery until she sees that report.

When toxicology comes back from the lab,

Dr. G's surprised to find that Lenny

tested negative for cocaine.

But the report also includes another shocking finding.

I get his carbon monoxide level back.

% of his hemoglobin is saturated with carbon monoxide.

That is the level we typically see with somebody

dying from carbon monoxide.

NARRATOR Dr. G is now certain that this is how Leonard d*ed.

But the facts in this case still aren't adding up.

With the utilities to his home switched off,

how could Leonard have been exposed to a fatal dose

of carbon monoxide?

He's just found dead in his house,

and the electricity is off.

But I don't have any other clues of why

he would have carbon monoxide.

So is this a su1c1de?

Is this an accident?

What's going on?

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

NARRATOR Dr. G is on a mission to solve the mysterious case

of Leonard Fletcher.

She knows he d*ed of carbon monoxide intoxication,

but what she doesn't know is how.

At this point, I'm going to go ahead and call the police

and tell them go back and check that house.

NARRATOR When police officers return to Leonard's home,

nothing at first seems out of the ordinary

until they get into the kitchen.

There they see that his refrigerator

is plugged into an extension cord leading

to a closed bedroom door.

And behind the door--

He's got a generator in the back bedroom.

NARRATOR And suddenly it all makes sense.

When Leonard's power was turned off,

he became worried that the food in his refrigerator

might spoil.

So to keep the appliance running,

he hooked it up to an old gas-powered generator.

I guess he thought that would be safe because he's

on the other side of the house.

And this generator in the back bedroom

caused enough carbon monoxide to build

up in his house to k*ll him.

NARRATOR With hard evidence in hand,

Dr. G can now safely conclude that Leonard Fletcher's death

was the result of the fifth leading

k*ller in the United States.

We are surrounded every day by things that can k*ll us.

There are toxic agents everywhere--

everything from carbon monoxide that your cars release, air

pollution, chemicals in your home,

even dr*gs that your doctors prescribe you

if used at the wrong levels, to elicit dr*gs that are

so prevalent in our society.

All these things are dangerous to our body,

and every day people misuse them and end up dead.

We can't totally control every toxic agent in our environment,

but we need to take toxic agents seriously.

Read instructions on any chemicals you're going to use.

You need to follow instructions for products.

You need to follow the advice of your doctor

if he gives you prescription dr*gs.

In the case of toxic agents, a little common sense

can really save your life.

When it comes to the fourth leading k*ller, using your head
[ … ]

can be as simple as listening to your body.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

NARRATOR -year-old Eric Brody arrives

in Orlando for a business convention feeling great.

Go on, get out of here.

NARRATOR But shortly after checking into his hotel,

Eric develops a backache.

He tells his friends that he really wasn't feeling well,

and so he stays in bed and doesn't even

go to the convention the first day.

NARRATOR He takes some over-the-counter medication,

hoping it will pass, and stays in bed for two more days.

But despite a high fever and increasing pain,

he's reluctant to seek medical attention.

All the while, his colleague Sarah

continues to keep tabs on him.

She calls up the next day.

But lo and behold, this time EMS answers his cell phone.

And they tell her, oh, you better meet us at the hospital.

[MONITOR FLATLINING]

The next thing she knows, he coded in the trip

to the hospital and arrived dead on arrival.

He's supposed to be in good health.

No known medical disease.

It's unclear exactly what's going on.

NARRATOR But then a bit of information

from Eric's wife raises a curious possibility.

They both had spider bites.

His spider bite was kind of on his back.

Oh, my god.

They'd gotten supposedly some antibiotics,

and they didn't think much of it.

NARRATOR To determine if Eric's death was somehow

the result of a spider bite, Dr. G first searches for signs

externally.

I look on his back and on the back side.

I don't see any evidence of a spider bite.

Oh, let's see.

NARRATOR But as she continues to inspect

the rest of Eric's body, she's alarmed by its appearance.

People who are real sick often will

get this mottled appearance, and he

had that, which really made me think

maybe he's got meningitis.

NARRATOR Meningococcal meningitis

is a bacterial infection of the brain and spinal fluid.

It's potentially fatal and highly contagious.

So we're not going to take any chances.

We'll take a microbe and a culture.

NARRATOR Inspection of the brain

will tell Dr. G if Eric d*ed from meningitis.

I want to look at his brain so we

can get this diagnosed quickly.

So I go ahead and we reflect the scalp.

And I take the calvarium off and look at the meninges, that

thin covering over the brain.

OK, we'll see what we got there.

NARRATOR And yet, Eric Brody's meninges look normal.

He does not have meningitis.

She continues her exam by opening Eric's chest

and inspecting his internal organs.

So then I start taking the bowels out.

And there we have big trouble.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

NARRATOR As Dr. G reaches in to remove

the bowels from -year-old Eric Brody's body,

she's taken aback.

My, my, my.

NARRATOR Right away, she recognizes

what caused his swift decline and sudden death.

What I see there is a terrible infection in the area

of his psoas muscle.

NARRATOR The psoas is a long, powerful muscle

that runs along the spine of the lower back and down

into the thigh.

It supports the body and enables it

to bend and flex at the waist.

I gotta tell you, it kind of looks like a--

like a pork tenderloin or like a beef tenderloin.

That's what it looks like, kind of a bundle of muscle coming

down, and it goes from your pelvis

into your tops of your femur.

This abscess and pus goes down the muscle.

It goes actually all the way to the spine.

He's got a terrible infection going on.

At this point, I know he d*ed from overwhelming infection.

NARRATOR But what type of infection?

And what caused it?

Could it have resulted from the spider bite

that Eric had found on his back?

To find out, Dr. G takes samples of the muscle

for bacterial cultures.

So at this point, I pretty much end the autopsy

and wait for some of these results.

NARRATOR Two days later, Dr. G gets a phone call from the lab.

And I was really surprised at what the lab told me he had.

He has MRSA.

NARRATOR MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staph

Aureus, is a highly infectious form of staph bacteria

that can ravage soft tissue, lungs, or the bloodstream.
[ … ]

MRSA typically enters the body through a cut or scrape.

This is what Dr. G suspects happened to Eric--

a small cut and the unlucky introduction of MRSA

into his body.

The bacteria got into his blood,

and then it started to grow.

It causes the blood vessels to kind of lose their integrity

and dilate, and he just can't maintain blood

to his vital organs anymore.

NARRATOR Robbed of the oxygen-supplying blood,

his vital organs begin to shut down, and Eric dies.

But there's one more mystery the discovery of MRSA

sheds light on.

It is such a common story with the MRSA skin infection

that people think they have spider bites.

That's such a common presenting complaint.

Oh, I got this spider bite, and now it's all infected.

But these are MRSA infections.

NARRATOR What Eric thought was a spider

bite was actually an itchy localized MRSA skin infection--

the point of origin where the bacteria entered his body.

In the case of Angela, Eric's wife,

her immune system was able to fight off the infection.

But unfortunately, his wasn't.

And he only made matters worse by ignoring his symptoms.

[COUGHING]

NARRATOR Although MRSA is aggressive,

it can be treated with appropriate antibiotics.

Dr. G now knows that Eric d*ed from the fourth leading

k*ller in America.

People still die in the United States

from microbial agents, infectious diseases.

We can prevent that.

NARRATOR Microbial agents include

infectious diseases, such as pneumonia, influenza,

hepatitis, and meningitis.

Together they k*ll approximately , Americans every year.

And while it may be impossible to avoid all microbial agents,

there are certain choices you can make

to keep them from k*lling you.

You know, if I had one piece of advice for Eric,

I would have said, don't ignore your symptoms.

[COUGHING]

I'm not saying that you should become a hypochondriac,

but there are certain red flag symptoms

that should not be ignored--

prolonged elevated temperature, being disoriented or confused,

coughing up or vomiting blood, violent shaking and chills,

new onset of shortness of breath.

These are things that should cause you to seek

medical attention immediately.

NARRATOR Aside from responding to alarming symptoms,

there are other simple things that

can stave off microbial agents.

Hand-washing is very important.

Good hygiene, good dental hygiene.

All of those things we know help prevent getting infections.

NARRATOR No one expects to have their body

invaded by microbial agents.

But by responding to red flag symptoms

and practicing proper hygiene, you

can greatly reduce your chances of falling victim

to the fourth leading k*ller.

The next top k*ller is much more subtle.

It's all around us, and yet people fail to see

just how dangerous it is.

When it comes to the third leading cause of death,

we already know the dangers.

We've all heard the warnings.

And we all know what it can do to you.

Even with all this information, it still kills

, Americans each year.

NARRATOR At first glance, Vesta and Rusty seem

like any other happy couple.

They've just flown in to Orlando,

and in the morning plan to embark

on a -day Caribbean cruise.

But first impressions can be deceiving.

This is the first time the couple

has seen each other since their divorce years ago.

He had lost his job.

We were going to lose the house.

It was-- it was just all too much.

And I just asked him to leave, and he did.

NARRATOR But a few months earlier, Rusty called Vesta out

of the blue saying he'd recently come into an inheritance

and wanted to celebrate by taking her on a cruise.

VESTA (VOICEOVER) How many chances are you

going to get to go on a cruise?

NARRATOR So years after the end of their marriage,

Vesta finds herself catching up with her ex over dinner.

Rusty orders a beer with his meal.

And while things are pleasant, Vesta senses something

is not quite right.

He looked haggard.

That's a good word for that.

He looked sick.

NARRATOR Rusty confirms he's had a tough year.

He was hospitalized after a stroke, and then

a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
[ … ]

Back in their room, Vesta can't help but notice

that Rusty is trembling.

He shook all night long.

It was probably right up there on the list

of one of the oddest things I've ever been around.

NARRATOR The next morning, he complains of being cold

and decides to take a bath to warm up.

But after almost an hour in the bathroom,

Vesta begins to wonder what's taking so long.

She knocks on the door and enters to a chilling scene--

Rusty laying unconscious in the bathtub.

Frantically, she tries to revive him, but there's no response.

She then calls .

But by the time paramedics and police arrive, Rusty is dead.

And his ex-wife is at a loss to explain why.

I guess I was afraid of them 'cause, you know,

who knows what police are going to do in a situation.

They don't know that I haven't hurt him.

And that was scary.

NARRATOR Rusty is officially pronounced dead at AM,

just minutes before Vesta was to embark on her dream cruise.

Then I just had that whole day and another half a day sitting

in a hotel room in Florida by myself thinking

about my dead ex-husband.

NARRATOR Unable to explain his death,

police turn the perplexing case over to Dr. G.

It's a very strange situation.

A man shouldn't just drown in a bathtub.

We have a thin man, looks his stated age of mid-s.

Really no signs of trauma on him at all externally.

NARRATOR Considering Rusty was found in the tub,

Dr. G first looks for signs of drowning by opening his chest

and examining his lungs.

His lungs show no evidence whatsoever of drowning.

No fluid when I cut the lungs.

It looks like he probably had something happen to him prior

to putting his head under.

NARRATOR Dr. G inspects Rusty's other organs--

Liver, ,.

NARRATOR --but after a painstaking examination finds

nothing out of the ordinary.

Liver doesn't look too bad.

Looks like he might have some fatty changes.

We also got the information that he might have prostate cancer,

and that it may be quite severe.

NARRATOR In order to determine if Rusty's prostate cancer is

the reason behind his death, Dr. G must remove and inspect

the walnut-sized gland.

But when she dissects it--

Prostate looks just fine.

There's no evidence of prostate cancer at all.

They look just great.

NARRATOR It's puzzling.

For someone who is as sick as Rusty claimed to be,

Dr. G can find no evidence to support it.

There's only one place left for Dr. G to look.

Surely, the answers in the head, because he's had

this big stroke.

NARRATOR But Rusty's brain presents another dead end.

There is no telltale scarring in his brain tissue

that indicates Rusty ever had a stroke.

In fact, Dr. G finds no evidence in any

of Rusty's internal organs of either prostate cancer

or of a past stroke.

They all look fine.

I don't really see anything.

NARRATOR It now appears that the medical information

provided to Dr. G is inaccurate.

I don't have a clue what's going on with this man.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

NARRATOR After completing her internal exam of Rusty Updike,

Dr. G realizes she knows even less about his sudden death

than when she started.

As a next step, she orders her investigators to track down

the man's hospital records.

OK.

NARRATOR And once they arrive, a view of the real Rusty Updike

begins to emerge.

I got a totally different picture of this man.

This is a man that lives in a kind of homeless shelter motel.

He was not in the hospital for a stroke.

He did not have prostate cancer.

He was in the hospital for effects of chronic alcoholism.

He's a big time alcoholic and is rarely

without alcohol in his system.

NARRATOR The records also indicate

that during his hospital stay Rusty's condition worsened.

DR. G (VOICEOVER) He started going

into alcohol withdrawal seizures and had

to be medicated for that.

NARRATOR Vesta helps to make the picture even clearer.

She explains to Dr. G that Rusty's

alcoholism was the real reason behind the couple's divorce.

So before agreeing to accompany him on the cruise,

Vesta made one demand.

I told him that I would love to go with him,

but that I didn't want him to be drunk the whole time.

NARRATOR So Rusty stopped drinking immediately,

consuming only one beer with dinner.

But little did he know that decision would prove fatal.
[ … ]

And he just had one beer.

One beer is nothing for this man.

He's usually drinking and more a day.

NARRATOR The low level of alcohol in Rusty's system

sends him into autonomic dysfunction,

a condition where the nervous system

loses the ability to control the body's temperature.

He's cold.

He just feels horrible.

And so that's why he ends up wanting to take a bath.

He dies in the bathtub most likely

from either a seizure, cardiac arrhythmia associated

with his alcohol withdrawal.

NARRATOR With all the information in hand,

Dr. G is finally able to determine

that Rusty Updike's death was the result of the third largest

k*ller in America.

More than . million Americans abuse alcohol.

And this year alone, , will die as a result.

Another , will die in alcohol-related vehicle

accidents.

[TIRES SCREECHING]

In the case of Rusty Updike, alcohol k*lled in a way

that many don't even realize is possible.

Alcohol withdrawal is serious and is potentially deadly,

as we see with Rusty's death.

If you're planning on withdrawing,

you need the help of a professional.

Detox, your physician-- let them know that you

plan on stopping drinking.

Go to a professional for the detoxification.

NARRATOR But withdrawal is only one of alcohol's deadly phases."], index ,…}

You can die acutely from alcohol.

You can die from the chronic effects of alcohol.

And you die from the behavioral effects, how it makes you act.

NARRATOR Alcohol abuse can pray on the human body in many ways,"], index ,…}

but they all lead to the same place--

an early death.

And the same is true for America's number two k*ller.

It is estimated to claim approximately

, lives this year.

It takes a terrible toll on your body

and can reduce your life expectancy by up to years.

NARRATOR Steve Jesse and Erica Moller

have been dating for six years, but things

aren't going so well.

They've been at each other's throats for months,

and this evening's argument is particularly heated.

After what seems like hours of nonstop fighting,

Steve leaves the apartment, hoping some time apart

will calm both of them down.

But he returns home to a harrowing sight.

He comes back and sees her on the ground.

NARRATOR Steve immediately calls

and tries to revive her.

But it's too late.

Erica is already dead.

When the body of Erica Moller arrives in the morgue,

Dr. G is concerned about her lack of medical history.

She doesn't have too much history.

She doesn't go to the doctor.

We know she's got high blood pressure,

and we know she's got asthma.

NARRATOR But there is one piece of Erica's medical history

that is all too clear.

She is morbidly obese.

She is foot and weighs over pounds.

She's pretty much wheelchair-bound.

When you're morbidly obese, it's difficult to get around.

The increased weight bearing on the knees,

and it wears away at the cartilage

to the point where it's so painful, you can't walk.

NARRATOR Though, mysteriously, Erica wasn't in her wheelchair

when Steve found her.

She was out a few steps from the wheelchair.

Maybe she tried to get up out of that wheelchair?

She doesn't walk much.

Maybe she lost her balance and hit her head?

NARRATOR And because Steve tells investigators

about their argument, Dr. G wonders if he may

have somehow been responsible.

He claims he was out, he doesn't know what happened.

Maybe the boyfriend has something to do with it?

NARRATOR Another possibility Dr. G must consider

is a delayed reaction from a recent accident.

As she was taking one of the local disabled vans,

the van stopped.

She flew forward and landed on some kind

of bar that's in there.

The van accident occurred just one week prior to her death.

That's a little too close for me.

I'm worried about a delayed effect from the accident.

NARRATOR With this in mind, Dr. G begins her autopsy.

Externally, Erica looks fine, but Dr. G

knows that not all fatal injuries

are visible from the outside.

Worried that Erica may have fallen and hit her hand,

she searches for injuries to her cranium.

I remove the calvarium.

There's no evidence of bleeding inside her brain,
[ … ]

so she has no evidence of trauma to her head.

NARRATOR But this finding does not rule out the possibility

of a fatal accident.

Dr. G continues her search for signs

of trauma with an internal exam, but this exam

will be challenging.

It's much more difficult to do an autopsy on her a very, very

obese person.

I am cutting through literally foot of fat

on the abdominal wall, and I'm not exaggerating.

-pound people, -pound people, it's very, very thick.

Golly.

We got a lot to go through.

Lots of visceral fat.

It causes me to certainly increase

risks of cutting myself.

It's that greasy.

I don't see any trauma in her abdomen.

Her spleen looked fine inside.

There's certainly no free blood in the abdomen.

She doesn't have any rib fractures.

Her lungs are in place.

NARRATOR So far, the internal exam

is not yielding any clues that might pinpoint

the cause of Erica's death.

Now it's time to look at her organs.

NARRATOR Dr. G begins by examining Erica's heart,

and with just one glance she can see that something

is not at all right.

This is not a normal heart.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

NARRATOR When Dr. G began her autopsy of Erica Moller,

there were few clues to explain this woman's death.

But only moments into examining Erica's heart,

Dr. G thinks she may have found an answer.

So we look at her heart.

It's almost twice what it should be.

This is an ill heart.

It looks like high blood pressure,

and she's starting to go into some early congestive heart

failure.

NARRATOR And Dr. G also find signs of trouble

in Erica's other organs.

That is one big liver.

Liver is enlarged.

Her spleen is enlarged.

She has hypertension and congestive heart failure.

She's got early pancreatitis.

Almost every one of her organs is associated with obesity.

NARRATOR With this shocking evidence in hand,

Dr. G now believes she knows how Erica d*ed.

Her boyfriend goes out.

She gets up, maybe to go to the bathroom.

She has a sudden arrhythmia and keels over.

And this is clearly the result of her congestive heart failure

due to her hypertensive cardiovascular disease

and her asthma, probably a combination of both of those.

And that's why she d*ed.

But the real cause of death?

The real cause of death is her morbid obesity.

You know, what you can take away from this case is that it is--

we think of obesity as a problem with the way you look.

It's not a problem with just the way you look.

We could all accept you the way you look.

It's a problem with your health.

It is a huge health problem, no matter how you cut it.

NARRATOR In fact, just pounds of extra fatty tissue

creates high blood pressure and can trigger diabetes, cancer,

plaque buildup, calcification of the arteries,

and heart disease.

On average, obese people live a staggering years less than

people at a healthy weight.

We see obese people more and more in the morgue

because there are many ways obesity can k*ll you.

NARRATOR But Dr. G knows that in cases

like Erica's, losing weight can be a fight

that can't be won without help.

Try to lose the weight and go to a doctor.

Try to get on a professional weight loss plan.

If you're truly morbidly obese, consider

surgery to reduce the amount of food

that can go into your stomach.

Because it's not just about the way you look,

it's about your life.

It's about living longer.

Here, on the side.

I can't tell you how to live your life,

but I can tell you if you make the same decision as the victim

in this final case, you stand a very good

chance of dying prematurely from the number

one k*ller in America.

NARRATOR It's PM on a warm January evening.

Two police officers cruise through one of the city's

roughest neighborhoods when suddenly, without warning,

the unmistakable sound of g*nf*re

explodes through the streets.

[SIRENS BLARING]

Moments later comes the call.

A body has been found just a few blocks

from the officers' patrol car.
[ … ]

When they arrive on the scene, they

are confronted with a strange and horrific sight--

a man naked, facedown in a pool of blood, dead.

He has matted hair, blood everywhere-- blood everywhere.

There aren't too many things that

will give you that much blood on the outside of your body.

NARRATOR With police on the hunt

to find the unidentified man's k*ller,

Dr. G begins her autopsy.

By looking at him, he seems like he's had a rough life.

Looks just generally unkempt, dirt

under his nails, disheveled hair.

Looks like a transient.

Having transients come through who are m*rder*d

is a common thing.

They live a lifestyle that's dangerous.

They don't associate with the best people.

They're often drunk.

And so it's a setup.

They get-- over petty things, you know, fights over booze

or a small amount of money they had.

So they're vulnerable for targets.

And we do see them come through as as*ault victims.

NARRATOR Since the police reported hearing g*nshots,

Dr. G's first step is to locate a b*llet hole or exit wound.

But strangely, after a thorough inspection of the man's body,

she finds nothing.

DR. G (VOICEOVER) I don't see any damage whatsoever.

NARRATOR Finding no external markings

or evidence of a g*nsh*t wound, Dr. G turns to an X-ray.

Any b*llet fragments will show up

as small specks of light, like these seen in the X-ray

of another g*nsh*t victim.

As soon as the images are ready, Dr. G carefully inspects them

for b*llet fragments.

But what she sees instead will turn

the investigation into this mystery man's case upside down.

Oh, boy.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

NARRATOR Dr. G is examining the body

of an unidentified man police think

was sh*t to death last night.

But as she reviews a series of X-rays, she's shocked

by what she finds--

nothing.

The head X-ray shows no b*ll*ts, so it's basically

negative for a projectile.

So he definitely doesn't have a b*llet in his head.

NARRATOR As Dr. G continues her search

for answers in the morgue, her investigators

make a discovery of their own.

We've just met with the police on the gentlemen.

They have gained access to his residence

and we know who he is now.

The mystery man is Charles Simmons.

He was a drifter who called a ramshackle vacant apartment

home.

And inside his makeshift residence police find

an important clue for Dr. G--

tissues soaked with blood.

This new information gets Dr. G thinking in a completely

different direction.

Could the problem be internal?

One possibility, that he's coughing up

blood or vomiting blood from a gastrointestinal tract

or from his lungs.

NARRATOR To get a closer look, Dr. G makes her Y-incision

and removes Charles' lung for dissection.

This is not looking good.

You can already see the adhesions.

On the top of this right lung at the upper portion

is a large mass.

It's lung cancer in the upper right portion of his lung.

It's white.

It's firm.

It's eroding into the lung tissue.

So he has a cancer in his lung, and it's

really quite large cancer.

NARRATOR With this piece of information in hand,

Dr. G can now replay the last minutes

of Charles Simmons' life.

On the night of his death, Charles begins

a violent fit of coughing.

Inside his chest, the tumor has dealt its final blow,

pushing through the wall of his lung

and opening a hole into his pulmonary artery.

Like a bursting dam, blood begins

to flow through the hole, filling his lungs.

And the blood just come straight out through that tumor

right into the bronchus.

NARRATOR Alone and unable to cry for help,

he suddenly realizes the severity of his condition.

I'm sure he was panicked.

That would be a very scary way to die.

NARRATOR Perhaps seeking help, Charles

stumbles into the night naked.

But it's too late.

He loses several pints of blood and collapses.

Eventually, Charles Simmons simply bleeds to death.

The source of the g*nshots that night will remain a mystery.
[ … ]

Officers responding to sh*ts fired.

NARRATOR But it's clear that the pool of blood

around Charles' head was not from a w*apon,

but rather a tumor.

And as Dr. G looks at Charles' body,

she has a strong suspicion what caused

the cancer in the first place.

He's got yellow staining of his beard consistent

with nicotine staining.

He's also got nicotine staining of his fingers.

We often see that with heavy cigarette smokers.

NARRATOR Like , other Americans each year,

Charles Simmons lost his life to the number one k*ller

in America.

The number one worst choice that you

can make about your life and decrease in the life expectancy

is your decision to smoke.

The smoking is what did it.

NARRATOR Smoking kills one out of every five Americans--

one death every eight seconds.

It att*cks the body from all angles, clogging arteries,

causing emphysema, multiple types of cancer,

strokes, and heart disease.

For smokers, premature death is often a sad reality.

When I open a body, you can immediately see the smokers

from the nonsmokers.

People who smoke have black pigment throughout their lung.

And then of course, the coronary artery disease.

Thick-walled, cholesterol-ladened

occluded vessels.

I just find that ugly.

You're ugly on the inside when you smoke.

I know that smoking is addicting.

There are effective ways that you can try to quit.

There's medications now.

There's nicotine to help you get over that addiction.

Get away from those situations that make you want to smoke.

It's never too late to quit smoking.

Even just hours after you've quit smoking,

your likelihood of having a heart att*ck

actually goes down.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

We can learn a lot from the dead.

I realize that most of the people

that come through my morgue don't need to be there.

They're all true stories, and you can't make these things up.

You can nag and tell them lose weight, stop smoking, get

your blood pressure checked.

But a lot of times, that doesn't sink in.

And what I learned is that when you relay those stories,

it finally sinks in to people.

And if just a few people can change their lifestyle

by seeing how other people die and make

better decisions about their life, I think it's a positive.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN Atlas.