Nov. 14--The Kane County's coroner's office performed about 50 unnecessary autopsies in 2013, about one-third of the total number it conducted, a review commissioned by the county board chairman found.
County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen hired former county coroner Mary Lou Kearns earlier this year to review the work being done by the office of Coroner Rob Russell. Kearns served in that office for 23 years.
Kearns reviewed 160 autopsies and concluded in the publicly funded report "that approximately 50 cases (individual deaths) did not require an autopsy to determine the cause of death."
Combined, the unnecessary autopsies would add up to roughly $51,500 in unnecessary spending, Lauzen said.
The audit is expected to be formally released and discussed at a County Board committee meeting Friday. The Tribune obtained a copy Thursday.
Russell defended his office's work to the Tribune and said he plans to continue performing autopsies that he considers necessary.
"We're gonna do business by the current national standards, not by old standards and by the chairman's hatchet man," Russell said. "I feel good about what we've done."
About 30 of the cases identified as unnecessary by Kearns were "very obvious," she wrote, "as the death occurred while being resuscitated by paramedics, in the hospital emergency rooms, operating rooms, intensive care units or were patients at the local hospitals."
Medical professionals had already diagnosed the cause of death in those cases, she wrote.
In 20 cases, the bodies had "obvious injuries or past extensive medical history, and (the people) were taking prescribed medications from their doctor," Kearns wrote.
In a letter accompanying the audit, Lauzen said he recognizes Russell's "complete authority to spend taxpayer money" on autopsies but asked him to use the report as "guidance for future decisions."
"I simply ask that you moderate and balance your self-assurance and spending patterns in this your first administrative, management and political term ... based on the experience and advice of a former coroner who distinguished herself in public service for 23 years in the exact same position in which you currently serve," Lauzen said.
Lauzen and Russell, both Republicans, have been locked in a spirited public and private battle over the past year, primarily over Russell's budget and the coroner's demand for a new office.
The acrimony has extended to the point in which Russell refused earlier this year to meet one-on-one with Lauzen to discuss their problems.
Russell slammed the audit this past summer in a letter to Lauzen obtained by the Tribune under an open records request.
"To spend money on this review seems to be counter to both our fiscally responsible beliefs, has no productive outcome at best and is a violation of internal control at worst," he said in the letter.
Russell reiterated his opposition to the review Thursday and said that Kearns brings an outdated view of the coroner's office since she hasn't practiced since the late 1990s.
"It's kind of asking a VCR repairman to fix an Apple TV," Russell said.
In the past, he's also said coroners didn't always perform autopsies when necessary, using heroin cases as an example.
"We can't assume that just because someone's a heroin user they died of a heroin (overdose)," Russell told the Tribune earlier this month. "Things happen. Murders can happen, people can poison them, they're in the drug industry so maybe they got murdered. These are things we have to eliminate."
The report doesn't mention specific cases, Russell said, which makes it difficult for him to double-check Kearns' work.
"There wasn't any specifics on which cases she disagreed with and whatnot," Russell said. "I need to get that from her to have an intelligent conversation about it."
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