The Chanda Turner Reform Act (SB250) has been signed into law, and will go into effect Nov. 1, 2011! Families can now appeal their loved-ones' death certificates!

Max's wife, Leslie, wrote into JFTD on August 20, 2010.  This is her story:

My name is Leslie Frye.  I came across your website after googling  Inas Yacoub and didn’t realize that there were people out there having the same disturbing trouble that I am having.
 
My husband Max passed away two years ago at the age of 34.  The night he died I gave a quick comment to the physician at the hospital where the ambulance had taken him.  I spoke to him briefly as they were running a “code blue” on him and again after they had pronounced him dead.  Please realize that I was in shock
and unsure if I really told the physician everything .  Later the funeral home came to pick him up and he said the ME was questioning an abrasion on his forehead but decided an autopsy was not necessary.  I was content with that.  My husband had a long history of seizures and I had no doubt that had played a part
in his death. 

The following morning the funeral home contacted me and stated that the ME had changed its mind and decided to do an autopsy.  No one contacted me from the ME office, no one of any sort ever asked me anything about my husband regarding his death. 

A couple of months later I received the report in the mail and I was
dumbfounded.  The cause of death was listed as Cardiac Arrhythmia due to cardiomegaly with seizure disorder.  It was stated to be a violent, unusual or unnatural death but left the manner of death as “unknown”.   I was left completely confused, as this makes absolutely no sense to me. 

Had anyone asked me I would like to have told them how my husband and 11year old daughter were at home.  I called and talked to my daughter on the phone at least 20 minutes before I arrived home, and she said her dad was in the bathroom taking a shower.  When I got home I found him in the bathtub (no water was ever turned on).  He was laying on his stomach and his head was turned to his far right upward toward his shoulder.  It had appeared that he had a seizure and yelled out to my daughter to get the neighbor for help.  As I tried to get him out of the tub, I quickly realized that he wasn’t breathing or it was very agonal and
shallow. My daughter called 911.

Soon a police man got him out of the tub and I administered CPR.  He was transported to a hospital and subsequently pronounced dead.  I have studied the autopsy report front to back for two years.  The finding clearly show that Max had a seizure.  There are further findings that indicate asphyxia.  I believe that Max died due to positional asphyxiation after having a seizure.  I do not
deny that Max had an enlarged heart but feel like the ME saw that and ran with it. 

I have written letters to the ME office and have gotten no response.  Although I feel deep sorrow for the father of Aja Johnson, I was angered that her autopsy was hand delivered to him and I can’t get anything from that office.  I have almost just let it go, however, I would like answers.  I would like ME findings to be complete and accurate.  For peace of mind, medical history, and life insurance.

It is heartbreaking to read the stories on your website and see that this office has been in disarray for so long as I had no idea. 

I apologize for rambling.  I’m sure you understand that I have obsessed over this and it has consumed me. 

Thank you,
 
Leslie Frye

Our deepest sympathies go out to Mrs. Frye for the loss of her beloved husband.  We are thankful she has agreed to share her story to help force a change in our State Medical Examiner's Office.