ATLANTA — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it is addressing one of its "top priorities" after graduating two fellows from its 2022-23 forensic pathology program.
Both women are also set to stay full-time with the GBI as associate medical examiners.
The bureau said in a June 30 news release that Dr. Samantha Mattox and Dr. Romana Mayer would help address the current medical examiner shortage - "one of the GBI's top priorities."
11Alive met up with one of the graduates and two of the medical examiners with the GBI.
"I felt like I was really well trained and wanted to continue my training and learn more in everything that I can," said Dr. Mayer.
The GBI said that dedication is key, because of the backlog in death investigations the state is facing and the shortage of forensic pathologists available for hire.
"Over the past several years, the United States has experienced a significant shortage of board-certified medical examiners," the bureau said. "This shortage causes delays in death investigations, to include the timely prosecution and closure of some cases, and the GBI understands the tremendous impact this has on families."
"If your family member died, and they’re in our coolers because we don’t have enough doctors, you can imagine the type of anguish that the families go through," said associate medical examiner, Dr. Rachel Gellar.
Outgoing GBI Director Mike Register said in a statement that Dr. Mattox and Dr. Mayer would "place our doctors in a better position to address the increase in autopsy requests."
Dr. Natasha Grandhi said ideally each medical examiner would perform 250 autopsies annually. She explained, currently, some medical examiners at the GBI are having to do more than 400 each because of the shortage.
She said more staff would help decrease the turnaround time, thus allowing families to get closure faster.
“I am confident that the GBI’s forensic pathology fellow program will pave the way to solving not just the medical examiner shortage in Georgia, but in our nation," Register said.
Dr. Geller added the GBI is actively recruiting more people to not only become forensic pathologists but also join the fellow program.
"The only long-term solution to the backlog is to create more forensic pathologists," said Dr. Gellar. "And that’s what we’re doing."
The GBI's chief medical examiner, Geoffrey Smith, said he was "thrilled" with the addition of Mattox and Mayer.
"Our office is grateful for their commitment to a tough but satisfying field that benefits so many grieving families across the state," he said.
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