Webb County is one of the few places in South Texas with a medical examiner.
After someone dies in an unusual or sudden way, a medical examiner will often be called in to inspect the body. They document its condition and often propose a cause of death.
There’s a serious shortage of medical examiners in Texas, though. According to Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, the county examiner is overwhelmed by bodies in need of inspection, many sent in from other communities.
Tijerina spoke to the Texas Standard about the issue.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: How many other counties use Webb County’s medical examiners?
Tano Tijerina: We have right now about 12 other counties. We’re considered a regional hub; there’s not very many regional hubs anymore, but we are considered a regional hub.
And you’re talking about mostly the Laredo area here. How much of a burden is this on your own resources just to keep up with demand for examinations?
Well, it’s been a demand for a very, very long time, even before the whole immigration crisis and all that. It’s fair to say that Webb County, Laredo, Texas, has not gotten the influx – like, we’re kind of stuck in the middle. It’s kind of like the bookends. And we have the Valley and we have Del Rio and Eagle Pass that have gotten really hit a lot harder than we have.
But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re still in the middle. There’s still an immigration crisis. But even before the COVID, Webb County has always been notorious for – even before the whole immigration process and I mean, you know, this whole migration started happening – it’s always been a problem here, with what we call other people than Webb County.
But our commissioners court is very strong on the opinion that we feel like we need to help the southern region. The problem is it’s a major burden. It does take a lot of resources.
Our medical examiner, Dr. [Corinne] Stern, has been an incredible asset. She’s been trying to retire for some years now. I mean, I think her salary was only like $350,000, which not even the second assistant makes that any more. And, you know, we have had to pay her a little bit more. She’s been holding on for the last couple of years.
But in all reality, when I tell you we’ve gone fishing – because we want her to retire like she’s been wanting to, and she’s been on for a while because we’re asking her to – we’ve tried everywhere looking for medical examiners. And when I say fishing, I’m talking about going out there and literally physically and doing everything we can to look for other medical examiners to come down here.
And it has been very tough. We’ve even put a price tag of $550,000, $600,000, and we still can’t get a medical examiner to even blink an eye at us. And so it does become a problem.
And that’s not only the only thing. I mean, in her office and our medical examiner’s office, I mean, we’ve had to put refrigeration systems, we’ve had to modify it as much as we can and make it larger in a sense for the capacity of the bodies – what she calls patients; so patients/body being the same thing.
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You’ve had to increase facilities – you’ve actually had to build out?
Yes, sir. And that’s all on our dime that we’re not getting any subsidies from anybody else. And that’s the only thing that I would ask from the state of Texas – and I think it’s an important ask – is we don’t want to shut down being the regional hub. I think it’s important for South Texas, Webb County being a regional hub.
But look, not too long ago, Corpus Christi shut down. They got into a situation; they had to shut down. The medical examiner in San Antonio and Bexar County, they’re not taking any more from anywhere else. So we in all reality could do the same thing and say, you know what, we’re only going to take the patients’ bodies from Webb County and that’s it.
But we as a commissioners court feel like it is an important part of what’s going on down here in South Texas to be friendly and neighborly. And we’re doing everything we can, but we would like and we would need some help coming in the future. That way, the moneys don’t come from our coffer; it comes from the state of Texas, which I hope that they could recognize that.
What do you attribute this shortage to? Why is it that you’re having such a hard time finding medical examiners when clearly you’re offering a lot of money there?
I just don’t believe that people are wanting to go into that field. I think it’s extremely popular in the TV series, in a whole bunch of series that everybody wants to be a doctor, a forensic doctor. But in all reality, when you start smelling and seeing it and hearing it and being a part of it, I think it changes everybody’s perspective.
You mentioned that you’re not getting help from the state. Are you planning to ask the state of Texas for help when this Legislature meets next year, or what are your next steps? How do you get out of this?
Absolutely. That would be the only thing is to ask the state for help. And we have incredible senator, and we have two state representatives that will be able to help us and hopefully they could push it through – and have them make the case of how severe this situation can and will become.
