Changing Hawaii
IN a multiple-death catastrophe like Sunday's landslide at Sacred Falls, various health and safety workers do their best to inject sanity into an insane situation. Rescue personnel, EMTs, doctors and nurses help both victims and survivors. They are interviewed by reporters in the disaster's infancy, and console family members when their grief is fresh. A medical examiner’s
perspective on landslideOn the back end of such a highly publicized nightmare, however, are those who participate behind the scenes -- like Dr. Kanthi von Guenthner, Honolulu's first deputy medical examiner. The 45-year-old East Oahu resident did five of the eight autopsies on those who died from the Mother's Day landslide.
She stood behind a glass window with the next of kin in the viewing room of the medical examiner's building in Iwilei, trying to maintain her composure while witnessing overpowering grief.
One parent -- there to identify the body -- screamed out in denial, saying that the battered corpse on the gurney was not her child, that it couldn't be her daughter. Another just stared and nodded, "Yes, that's him," stoically suppressing the pain.
Despite Kanthi's professionalism, and her track record of completing more than 5,000 cases in 15 years, she is still moved by that moment of jarring realization for survivors: when loved ones are irrevocably taken before their time, especially so violently and in such a public setting.
Family members often want to know if the deceased suffered. Kanthi told the parents of one Sacred Falls fatality that, due to the severity of their daughter's head injury from a large rock, her concussion was almost certainly followed by instantaneous death. They were comforted that her passing wasn't tortuous.
While Kanthi deals with such sadness every day, she cannot let it debilitate her while performing autopsies. She must be scientific, methodical.
Yet it's hard not to get teary afterward, especially when reading newspaper articles or learning about the victims from their relatives and friends. "Actually, I'm glad that I haven't hardened and lost the ability to feel emotion," she says.
The Sacred Falls tragedy was particularly chilling for Kanthi. She and her husband, Dirk, enjoy hiking every weekend. And Sunday was Mother's Day, when Kanthi herself was giving thanks for two healthy, strapping sons, who that night were safe in their beds.
Rescue workers and hospital personnel have it lucky, compared to the folks at the medical examiner's department. At least the professionals on the front line of tragedies can relish some success stories -- those who manage to survive, recuperate or barely escape injury. Such victories are uplifting and bring renewed meaning to life.
Kanthi, on the other hand, only sees the ones who don't make it, like the eight who couldn't escape the deadly shower of boulders last weekend. "They came to Hawaii to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors while their loved ones waited for them to return for Mother's Day dinner," Kanthi said of Mark and Jennifer Johnson, brother and sister, who were both killed by the landslide.
Their parents had also come to Hawaii, to celebrate Mark's graduation from Chaminade University, but they will return to the mainland alone. They are now officially childless.
Where is the semblance of sanity in that?
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
DianeChang@aol.com, or by fax at 523-7863.