I-Team: Video shows medical examiner's team pick up body that fell off stretcher in Dorchester
DORCHESTER - Cell phone video captured workers from the Medical Examiner's office, in the middle of the night on a Dorchester sidewalk, trying to pick up a body that had fallen off a stretcher.
Victoria Scott called it creepy. The ME workers were there to remove a deceased person from a home. Scott said after coming down the front stairs of the property, the stretcher toppled over. The body was not strapped in and rolled off into Scott's parked car, which was also hit by the stretcher.
Scott told the I-Team she was horrified. "It's a human being and it could have been my family member or a friend or anyone important in my life. And I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone, that's disturbing "
After a few minutes of trying, the workers were able to get the person's remains back on the stretcher, where this time they were strapped in. "I would guess right from the start protocol is that people are strapped to the stretcher, which is why it was done after the fact. These are people you should be able to trust, they may be taking care of you or your loved ones and we all want everybody to be treated with respect," said Scott.
In addition to being upset about how the person's remains were being treated, Scott said she would have never known how her car got damaged if her neighbor who took the video didn't tell her. The workers did not leave a note or file a report about the incident.
"These are people from the medical examiner's office holding this position and instead of doing the right thing and putting in the report that they had done that and notifying me, they must have thought, it's in the middle of the night, no one's watching and they chose to just drive away. Equally disturbing," said Scott.
Scott has filed her own police report and contacted the ME about the damage to her car.
"I'm not paying for it. This is covering it up and so they need to take responsibility for that," Scott said. "It's not just fixing the car, it's another vehicle while it's being fixed. It's time going back and forth and that's valuable."
The I-Team reached out to the Chief Medical Examiner's Office. In a statement it said, "The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is aware of a matter related to the transport of a decedent on August 1, 2023. The OCME is reviewing the facts and circumstances of this incident to ensure compliance with policies and procedures. We have been in contact with the parties involved to resolve any concerns."
"I think it's sad, these people need to be retrained," said Scott. "You trust those people to do the right thing."
After the I-Team got involved, the Medical Examiner's Office responded to Scott and asked for more information, including photos of the damage to her car.