What Mark’s Attending Physician at the Burn Unit Reported in January 2004

 

About four months after my brother Mark’s truck was discovered engulfed in flames in a field across from his house and he lay suffering severe burns about sixty feet away, I telephoned his attending physician at the Erie County Medical Center to see if he could offer any information about my brother’s condition at the burn unit during the hours he spent there prior to his death.  As a copy of Mark’s autopsy report that I had obtained through his son seemed vague on a number of points, Atty. Tony Tanke suggested that I try to get clarification about a reference to my brother having “approximately 85-90% of first to fourth degree skin burn.”

When I spoke with Dr. Edward Piotrowski, my brother’s attending physician, on January 29, 2004, I mentioned that there was an ongoing police investigation into Mark’s death and explained that I regularly woke up at night with images of my brother burning to death and hoped that some clear information might at least help me understand his condition.

Dr. Piotrowski emphasized that he wanted to help and in a sensitive manner explained the severity and extent of Mark’s burns and the procedures performed to try to save him.  The following is a summary of that information, as I understood it:

Dr. Piotrowski reported that 90% of Mark’s body was burned severely; the burns were mainly third degree, with some fourth degree, which, he explained, is charring, and he noted that only the mid-to-lower back was spared the severe burns.  He stated that there were very severe burns on his chest, his upper body, his legs, and even his head.  The doctor also explained that they had tried to release burn tissue and that a procedure was performed to release fluid and reduce swelling caused by third-degree burns in order in part to facilitate breathing.  He explained that in cases of severe burns the heart has to pump the fluid around and that Mark’s body failed to be able to handle it.  He added that Mark’s blood pressure could not respond, and he suffered cardiovascular collapse.  As Dr. Piotrowski explained, they did not stop treatment, but Mark’s heart gave out.  He specified that among the three crisis stages for severe burn victims, my brother did not survive the first.

It was shocking to learn that my brother had actually endured fourth-degree burns and that he had suffered third-degree burns over so much of his body, including his head.  But the information that Dr. Piotrowski kindly provided, including the efforts he had made to save Mark’s life, did provide me a measure of relief, and I was very grateful.

As is evident from the summary of just the core of my initial conversation with Mark’s attending physician, my brother’s condition was an exceptional instance of burn injuries.  It is also clear that at that stage, when the investigation into Mark’s death was still in progress, Dr. Piotrowski really wanted to help and would have had much useful information for the N.Y. State Police investigators.  (On Dr. Piotrowski’s later statements about Mark’s condition, including the wounds to his forehead and the left side of his face, see esp. posts of September 24, 2016, and August 30, 2020; on the failure of the New York State Police to investigate the existence of Mark’s head wounds, see esp. post of January 29, 2019.)

So why didn’t the lead investigator, Edward Kalfas, interview Dr. Piotrowski and take advantage of his expertise?