New OMI Pathologist Left Controversy Behind

He must have seemed like a gift from the north to the folks at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator.

Way north, as in Canada.

Here he was, a bright forensic pathologist with reams of research papers and books to his credit and more education and experience than you could shake a decomposed finger at.

Dr. Evan Matshes also was considered an expert in perhaps the hardest, most emotional and sensitive job in any autopsy room: examining the tiny bodies of children.

In April 2012, he became the second refugee snagged by the OMI from the Alberta Medical Examiner’s Office in Calgary. Dr. Sam Andrews, Alberta’s former deputy chief medical examiner, was hired in July 2011.

Recently, though, news from the north has called into question whether Matshes was such a good gift after all.

On Nov. 29, 2012, eight months after Matshes accepted the job at the University of New Mexico and OMI as faculty member and director of pediatric forensic pathology, news broke up north that a government-appointed independent panel had uncovered significant issues with his work.

“The panel found the conclusions reached by Dr. Matshes to be unreasonable regarding either the cause of death, manner of death and/or other opinions,” a news release from the Alberta Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General said.

Of the 14 cases investigated so far, the panel found fault with 13, the release said.

The cases had been chosen because they were before the court; concluded cases are next to be examined.

The investigation marked the second time concerns had been raised about the work Matshes had performed during his 13 months with the Alberta office. Earlier in November, the Calgary Sun reported that Alberta Chief Medical Examiner Anny Sauvageau had asked the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons to look into Matshes’ work after fielding several complaints.

Those complaints were eventually dismissed.

Although Matshes’ troubles were big news up north, few had heard a peep about them down south, until now.

Dr. Ross Zumwalt, longtime chief medical investigator at OMI, would not address the investigations but said Matshes has been a valuable addition.

“He has completed his required orientation, including the proscribed review of his cases required of all new OMI faculty,” Zumwalt said in an email. “His review showed no deficiencies.”

Matshes – whose latest high-profile case is the Dec. 21 death of baby Nevaeh Ortega, believed to have been bludgeoned in Albuquerque possibly with a screwdriver days before her first birthday – did not respond to several requests for comment.

But Matshes had been a veritable quote machine for the Canadian media, firmly and frequently telling reporters that he had done nothing wrong and that if anything was at fault it was the office he left behind.

“The medical examiner system in Alberta is broken,” he told the Calgary Herald. “I have nothing to hide and stand firmly behind the high quality and thorough nature of my work.”

Both Matshes and fellow pathologist Andrews had made news in Canada when they announced their decisions to leave the Alberta office, citing too few staffers and too many bodies to examine.

“At the numbers we’re being asked to work I can’t be as thorough, and I need to maintain my integrity,” Matshes told Canadian TV station CNEWS in March 2011.

The question, then, is did he maintain that integrity?

What should be noted is that Matshes left a broken system for one that, while not broken, has surely shown a few cracks of its own, and his apparent troubles in Alberta fail to bring much comfort to the skeptics among us who have been critical of the OMI.

The deaths of prominent civil rights attorney Mary Han, Albuquerque police Lt. Todd Parkins and pet advocate Kari Winters, to name a few, were ruled suicides by the OMI, although there was enough conflicting evidence, enough concern over the way the cases were handled and enough public outcry to take a second look.

In Parkins’ case, the OMI reversed its finding from suicide to “undetermined,” but only after officials with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office obtained a second opinion from a nationally recognized forensics expert that refuted the OMI’s findings.

Last March, the Alberta Medical Examiner’s Office instituted a policy that requires peer review of most autopsy reports before they are made available – this, as a result of the brouhaha over Matshes and another former pathologist whose work was called into question. It’s a policy similar to one already in place at New Mexico’s OMI.

Unlike Alberta, though, New Mexico does not seem to have a mechanism or an authority in place to empanel an independent board to review OMI reports after they are released and questions are raised. A state Board of Medical Investigations exists, at least on paper, but no one I contacted, including officials with UNM and OMI, could tell me what this board does.

Perhaps it’s time the OMI take a cue from Alberta and institute those independent panels should those questions arise.

Now that would be a gift.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal