Noguchi

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Pathology

Thomas Noguchi

L.A. County-USC Medical Center

Many kids dream of growing up to be a professional baseball player, but St. Louis Cardinals slugger and record-setting home-run hitter Mark McGwire grew up wanting to be a coroner like Thomas Noguchi.

“My mom had this book about the Los Angeles coroner, Thomas Noguchi, and how he solved so many cases,” McGwire told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I’ve always been fascinated by how coroners can open up those bodies and solve what happened.”

The subject of McGwire’s childhood admiration chuckles at the story.

“Well, that’s very nice of him,” says Noguchi, the man once known as “coroner to the stars.”

Although he was fired as L.A. County coroner in 1982, Noguchi continued working as a specialist for the county Health Services Department before officially retiring last January after 38 years of county service. Now 72, he still works as a consultant on autopsies performed by the Coroner’s Office and also teaches medical students at USC about the mysteries of the dead.

“I’m more directed toward the living these days,” Noguchi says. “There are many things we can learn from deceased people in treating diseases in the living.”

Noguchi also heads a team doing research into trauma deaths and is involved in research into tissue and organ transplants.

“There are few things that can really have an impact on health care, and (transplants) are one of them,” he says.

As a result of that belief, Noguchi was more than willing to say yes when the American Red Cross asked him to head a committee to develop national standards for tissue transplant procedures.

His continued involvement in pathology might come as a surprise to the public, because his profile has diminished significantly since the county Board of Supervisors removed him from his job as chief coroner 17 years ago. Noguchi drew his fair share of criticism for his willingness to publicly describe the autopsies of such prominent people as Robert F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, William Holden and John Belushi.

While his technical skills were never called into question, Noguchi’s statements about the involvement of drugs or alcohol in the deaths of some celebrities brought complaints. He was fired as coroner amid additional claims of mismanagement.

Nonetheless, Noguchi remains the dean of pathology in L.A. He continues to be consulted by his old office on cases, attending death scenes and comparing cases with trauma research he oversees at County-USC Medical Center. Not only is he a professor of forensic pathology at USC, he was appointed head of USC Medical’s autopsy service in 1991 and currently serves as vice president of the World Association for Medical Law.

If he has any bitterness about being fired as coroner, he doesn’t show it.

“I’ve been praised and criticized for talking about death and dying,” Noguchi says. “Looking back, I’m glad I did what I did. I have nothing but fond memories.”

Looking day after day, year after year at dead bodies has brought with it an understanding about the fleeting nature of life.

“It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are, how great you might be,” he says. “Life is transient. There are no guarantees you’ll be alive tomorrow, so don’t dwell on the negative.”

Noguchi remains in good health and intends to keep working.

“I have about 30 years to go,” he says. “They used to say, ‘I want to live to be 100,’ but that’s old-fashioned. I can go past that.”

John Brinsley

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