Judge Orders Chief Medical Examiner to Change Autopsy Report

Recently a judge overseeing a civil suit involving Taser International vs. Ohio medical examiner Dr.
Lisa Kohler ruled that the medical examiner had to take out any reference in three of her reports alluding to a
cause of death by Taser exposure. Dr. Kohler had noted in her report that electrical shock from a Taser
was at least partially responsible for the deaths of three individuals in three separate cases.
Taser International is well known for its aggressive legal stance in defending its product and has won
all 68 of its civil lawsuits. The president of the National Association of Medical Examiners Jeffrey
Jentzen says that " this ruling sets a dangerous precedent for rule of law in America. " He goes on to say that members of the association are looking further into the matter and are looking at opposing opinions from Taser Internationals research. Jeffrey also goes on to say that " Our organization feels that it violates the physician's ability to make a medical decision. Ordering a professional physician to change or alter their records is in violation of their right to practice medicine. "

One example of some rather dubious research used for supporting Taser safety specs can be found at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17983716 Briefly this report says " A 15-s discharge from a TASER X26 CEW does not increase the core body temperature of resting, non-environmentally stressed adult subjects. " To which my first thought was " Outside of laboratory research conditions, where would a TASER X26 CEW be used on a resting, non-environmentally stressed adult subject? " The only conclusion I could arrive to is that the product would not be used in such circumstances. I can think of no incidents where police used a Taser against a suspect when he was resting and not under one or more known types of stress. Many times Tasers are used against suspects when they are under extreme anxiety and/or stress and considering the statement from the above report this was not taken into consideration.