Monday Morning
We had 17 members at our Monday meeting along with our guest speaker, Dr. Kristinza Giese from the Fond du Lac County Medical Examiner’s Office. Bonnie Baerwald had a “Happy Buck” thanking everyone that helped at last Friday’s Relay for Life Brat Fry. Gary Miller is putting together an InterClub to the FDL Evening Club on Wednesday evening, August 14th to hear about a Police Department program on Internet crime and how the local Kiwanis Clubs might be able to help. Jan Krug was the 50/50 Raffle Winner and she drew the Nine of Hearts, not a winner. Next week’s drawing will have 14 cards, four pay cards and a pot of at least $489.

Dr. Kristinza Giese, FdL County Medical Examiner
Dr. Giese is a forensic pathologist and has been in the FDL County Medical Examiner’s (MEO) office for about a year. She went to medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin and did her pathology residency in Washington State. According to Dr. Giese it takes about 13 years of training to be certified as a forensic pathologist. The Medical Examiner’s Office determines whether a death falls within their legal jurisdiction, as outlined in Wisconsin State Statutes. To arrive at this decision may require information from many sources: witnesses, family and friends; information from personal physicians and medical records; information from law enforcement agencies; information from the scene investigation, etc. While this process is underway, the decedent’s body may be transported to the FDL County MEO for temporary storage. Based on the information collected during the death investigation, the Medical Examiner will then consider the facts of each case individually, and determine whether it falls within the legal jurisdiction of the office. If the FDL MEO assumes jurisdiction, the Medical Examiner will then decide what level of investigation/examination is necessary to determine the cause and manner of death.
The question was asked if Dr. Giese’s job was anything close to CSI. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s much more methodical and lengthy than TV portrays.