Autopsy is certainly not the prettiest word or topic, but it was very important to my family, so I’m going to talk about it. I think when most people hear autopsy you think CSI or Law & Order, but it’s not just used for homicides. It’s regularly used to identify unknown causes of death or to rule out genetic disorders that can affect family members of the deceased.
My mom’s cancer was very aggressive, and we were never able to identify the origin when she was alive. This was difficult for her because she wanted my sister and I to be able to protect ourselves in the future. We already know breast cancer is rampant in my maternal grandmother’s side of the family, but my mom’s bone biopsy came back negative for breast cancer. It also came back negative for lung cancer, which I was convinced was what she had. Her bloodwork kept coming back with elevated markers for colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other cancers of the abdomen, but her CT scans showed no masses there. It was all very odd and reminded me of when my aunt Maureen was sick, but that was nearly twenty years ago. I thought, for sure, through all the advances in technology and medicine that they’d be able to identify the origin of her cancer.
My mom passed in April, and we still didn’t know where her cancer originated. The day she passed we discussed having an autopsy done to determine what she passed from. Once we were at the funeral home we asked the funeral director about having it done. He had a contact at VCU Medical Center and reached out to her. We were prepared to pay around $4,000 for an autopsy, but for us it was totally worth it to know our family medical history. The funeral director had his contact on speaker phone, and when she found out mom was a patient at VCU, she said her autopsy would be of no charge. Apparently all VCU patients are able to have autopsies done at no charge if they request one. This made our decision for her to have an autopsy a no-brainer.
The funeral home took her body to VCU Medical Center, and we were told they would have her results about a month later. We were given a number to call in five weeks. We chose for mom to have a complete autopsy, meaning her head, chest and abdomen would be examined. Some people choose to omit the head and just focus on the chest and abdomen. If you choose for your loved one to have a complete autopsy, please keep in mind that they will look different afterward. The funeral director informed us of that ahead of time, but it wasn’t an issue since we didn’t have a viewing for mom. The autopsy process took several days, and then the funeral home took her body to have it cremated. We actually didn’t even have her ashes back at the time of her visitation and funeral, but no one knew that unless we told them.
Once five weeks passed, my dad called to find out her results. Unfortunately, mom’s autopsy was inconclusive, they couldn’t find the source of her cancer. I was shocked. I didn’t think in 2021 that people died from totally unknown causes. I remember going to work and telling the fellow I worked with what happened and asking his opinion. It’s like I was looking everywhere for an answer of what happened. And not only to know what happened to my mom, but what do my sister and I need to be aware of in the future. How can we prevent the same thing from happening to us? This led me and my sister to have genetic testing, and we will probably always be having testing and screenings done to protect our health.
I don’t write this post to dissuade you from getting an autopsy for your loved one. My mom’s situation was rare; her autopsy report states that 2-5% of all cancer diagnoses are of unknown origin and of those 2-5%, 30% will still remain unknown after autopsy. I share this post to tell how the autopsy process works should you or a loved one need one in the future. I wish my mom had known we were going to be able to have an autopsy done so easily; she felt so defeated that she was too sick to have the additional tests needed to determine her cancer type. I also want to share because I think it’s amazing that VCU offers this service to their patients for free. It’s not talked about or widely known that they offer this, and I don’t want people to be deterred by the potential cost of an autopsy. If you’re not in the central Virginia area, I would suggest looking into the academic medical center (meaning they are affiliated with a university) in your area to see if they offer the same services for their patients.
BeST,
Brittany
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