Coroner's Journal Stalking Death in Louisiana

"Like the rest of the world, Dr. Louis Cataldie was unprepared for the extent of damage that Hurricane Katrina wreaked on the people and the city of New Orleans. He has spent most of his life working as a medical professional in Louisiana, but when Katrina hit, all of his skills and experience would be put to the test. With hospitals and medical units in chaos, he was a calm body in a time of crisis - and he remained in New Orleans in often unbearable and dangerous conditions, to attend to the sick and injured, and eventually to the untold number of dead." "Tending to the dead is what Cataldie is good at. After more than ten years as a deputy coroner and then as chief coroner in Baton Rouge, he has seen his fair share of unusual and disturbing cases. A coroner's job is to determine the cause, time, and manner of death. He must often be a jack-of-all-trades. He performs the autopsy, works the crime scene, preserves evidence, trains law enforcement, informs family members and the media, commits patients, offers counsel in a variety of ways. Above all, he essays to confer upon victims a fundamental dignity and respect, no matter how macabre the circumstances." "Not for the faint of heart, this is a close-up look at the world of a coroner in a small southern city with big-city problems. With stories that television shows like CSI can't tell, Coroner's Journal is a frank, fearless memoir of one man's life spent stalking death in the Deep South."--BOOK JACKET.Cataldie, Louis is the author of 'Coroner's Journal Stalking Death in Louisiana' with ISBN 9780399152825 and ISBN 0399152822.