Based upon his extensive experience, Dr. Bonnell is able to quickly identify the "canned" autopsy where the pathologist uses a standard dictation and fills in the blanks. This frequently results in discrepancies within the same report. For more than 20 years, he has done microscopic examinations on all his autopsies where this was possible. He has a wealth of experience as well as an extensive collection of microscopic slides for comparison. Many autopsy pathologists do not perform a microscopic examination routinely.
There is an old adage in medicine: "You only find what you look for, and you only look for what you know." Many microscopic slides can be misinterpreted because they pathologist didn't understand what they were looking at or never saw it before. Dr. Bonnell has performed more than 5,000 autopsies as well as supervising many more than that. He has kept current by attending forensic conferences, interacting with pediatric pathologists and neuropathologists as well as successfully completing, on an annual basis, check samples issued by the College of American Pathologists as well as the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.
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