Private Daniel Hiller was found dead at his Israel Defense
Forces base on May 30, 2001. An autopsy performed on his body
at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (NIFM) at Abu
Kabir in Tel Aviv by Dr. Bertold Levy, showed that he had
committed suicide. In June of this year, his parents, Herman
and Daniella Miller, who were dissatisfied with the autopsy
results, exhumed their son's coffin and placed it in the
living room of their home in the southern development town of
Dimona until the army agreed to their demand for a second --
independent -- autopsy.
Danish pathologist Jurgen Thomsen, 59, is the chairman of the
Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Southern
Denmark. Thomsen is also the chairman of the Danish
organization for forensic medicine and has worked with the
United Nations and with human rights groups all over the
world for the past 20 years.
Thomsen was asked to come to Israel and to perform the
autopsy, at the army's expense. The autopsy was performed on
July 29 at Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. Thomsen's
report confirmed the cause of death as suicide but maintained
that the body had not been properly sewn up afterward and
that internal organs and three ribs were missing from it.
Thomsen's report infuriated Prof. Yehuda Hiss, the long-time
head of the Abu Kabir facility. On August 4, Hiss held a
press conference to rebut Thomsen's findings. He also
obtained the support of senior officials in the health
establishment.
Hiss has been under fire after a commission headed by a
retired judge, Arie Segalson, submitted a critical report
about the NIFM in April 2001 -- a month before Hiller's
autopsy. (The commission was established following
allegations made in an investigative report that appeared in
Yediot Achronot.) The commission revealed flaws in the
work of the Institute, infractions of the Pathology Law and
cases of disregard for the feelings of families. The
institute "harvests organs for research and teaching purposes
without the family's consent," the report stated. In some
cases, organs were sent to research institutes or
universities in return for reimbursement of the expenses
involved.
At the press conference, Hiss charged that Thomsen's autopsy
and report were negligent, unprofessional and not objective.
The fact that organs were missing, he said, is consistent
with the condition of a body after two years.
In the wake of the controversy, Health Minister Dan Naveh
announced on August 6 that he had set up an external
commission headed by Judge Vardi Zeiler, the outgoing
president of the Jerusalem District Court, to examine the
first autopsy of Daniel Hiller, at the Abu Kabir. The panel
will include Prof. Avi Yisraeli, from Hadassah, and a retired
major general, Shmuel Arad. Thomsen will be asked to testify
before the commission, which is to begin its work on August
29.
Thomsen's Mistakes?
According to Hiss, Thomsen's first mistake in the autopsy
itself was that he did not identify the body by means of a
DNA examination and by examining the teeth. "How did he know
it was the body of that particular deceased individual?" Hiss
wonders.
Attorney Feuering, the Hiller's representative, says this is
media spin with the purpose of diverting attention from the
main question: whether internal organs were removed from the
body. "Is it possible there was a different body in Hiller's
grave? That is absurd."
A number of physicians said that Thomsen's examination was
too short, lasting only three hours, and therefore could not
be serious.
Attorney Feuering notes that the first autopsy didn't take
two days, either, "so what are they babbling about?" An
American pathologist agreed that three hours is enough time
to examine the body, adding that the contention about the
briefness of the autopsy is incorrect and ludicrous.
Hiss maintains that what undercut Thomsen's credibility was
his finding that the body was not sewn up properly after the
first autopsy. "Can you conceive of such a thing? It is
something shocking. Maybe he worked in strange places where
strange things were done, but to say that in Israel bodies
are not sewn up is a slap in the face. It's impossible to
move a body that has not been sewn up, you know. If it is not
sewn, the organs will fall out. When a person says something
so serious it is impossible to take him seriously afterward.
The military chaplaincy would not have accepted a body that
was not sewn up."
Dr. Yuri Koplovitz, chairman of the Israeli association of
pathologists, admits he has not read Thomsen's report, but
stands firmly behind Hiss. "I can understand the origins of
Thomsen's mistake. To sew the body we use a cotton or linen,
which dissolve after a short time. He apparently uses a nylon
thread, which doesn't decay so quickly and whose remnants can
be found easily. He didn't find traces of nylon thread and so
thought the body was not sewn together. I don't even know how
to go about reading what he wrote."
Prof. Derrick Pounder, a forensic pathologist from Dundee
University, in Scotland, burst out laughing when he heard the
contentions of the Israeli physicians. "No one in the world
uses nylon thread -- the same threads are used everywhere in
the world," he says. "Even if threads dissolve, you can see
the signs of the sewing in the body. The threads are very
thick and leave conspicuous signs in the body. It doesn't
surprise me that they didn't sew the body. A few years ago I
performed an autopsy on a Palestinian at Abu Kabir and they
didn't sew the body then, either. Usually they don't sew the
body out of sheer laziness."
Blachar, the chairman of the IMA, is especially angry at
Thomsen's finding that certain internal organs and three ribs
were not found in the body. "Every textbook of forensic
medicine states that the body undergoes a liquefaction
process such that within 10 months, there are no remains of
internal organs."
In his report, Thomsen addresses the criticism. His
experience with decaying bodies shows that it is still
possible to identify at least some of the internal organs
even after years in the grave, he wrote.
Anyone with sufficient experience can identify internal parts
of the body even two years after the death, Prof. Wecht, an
American pathologist, says. "There may truth in Thomsen's
arguments, especially given what happened at the institute in
the past."
Pounder laughs again. "To say that the body is so decayed
that it is impossible to identify missing organs is childish
and immature. Thomsen is used to dealing with decayed bodies.
What do they think, that in Denmark bodies don't rot? If that
were the situation, Denmark would have long since sunk
beneath the sea. If he says organs disappeared, you can
believe him 100 percent. The Israeli physicians are attacking
the messenger instead of trying to deal with the problem."
Similarly, Susannah Sirkin, in Boston, the deputy director of
Physicians for Human Rights (a group for which Thomses has
done work in the past) in the United States, says she has no
reason to doubt Thomsen's credibility. Thomsen has worked
with the American organization in the past and was sent by it
to supervise an autopsy in Israel.
"I would be very surprised and amazed if it turns out that
Thomsen's report is inaccurate," says a senior official of
the human rights organization Amnesty International in
London. "And I say that on the basis of many years of
acquaintance with him and after reading many of his reports.
I never heard complaints about his credibility from his
medical colleagues."
Prof. Derek Pounder, the forensic pathologist from Dundee
University, says he has known Thomsen for 20 years. "He is
considered a senior pathologist, orthodox in his autopsies,
balanced in his reports. He was never accused of writing
untrue reports. Even though he is large in his dimensions, he
is very gentle and balanced in his soul. I would trust his
findings 100 percent and cast doubt on the criticism of
him."
