Summary Case

SUMMARY

1-800-AUTOPSY: GIVING THE DEAD A VOICE

"The deceased must be protected and given a voice." That is the motto of Vidal Herrera, the founder of 1-800-Autopsy, a company that pioneered the private autopsy business.

BACKGROUND AND THE OPPORTUNITY

Herrera spent his early childhood in an orphanage; his mother was suffering from tuberculosis and unable to take care of her children.

To survive, Herrera began working at the age of 12, doing everything from shining shoes, making pizza, and selling newspapers to landscape maintenance and selling maps to movie stars' homes in nearby Hollywood.

He decided that he had to find a career with a future. He began volunteering as a diener (the person who cleans up after an autopsy), simultaneously working full-time as a morgue attendant while attending community college.

He was given a job at the morgue as a way to earn living while continuing to attend school. On his on-the-job training, he learned about medical photography, how to remove an organ and dissect tissue. He also learned how to harvest tissue for research and clean crime scenes.

However, while removing a 284-pound dead body from a crime scene, he suffered a back injury that put him out of business for over four years. That injury made it impossible for him to sit or stand for more than 15 minutes at a time.

As a result, he had trouble finding another job.

Ronald Kornblum, his former boss, hired Herrera to help with an autopsy.

Herrera soon discovered that other hospitals and funeral homes were experiencing the same problem: too many autopsies and not enough technicians or a budget big enough to support them. He began to explore the idea for a private autopsy service that could serve the unmet need.

With more than 2.4 million deaths each year in the U.S. alone and only 2 percent of those deaths autopsied by pathologists, the opportunity appeared to be huge.

In late 1988, Herrera launched Autopsy-Post Services as a subcontractor to hospitals. The company grew through referrals, word of mouth, and the support of funeral directors and the medical and legal communities. Unfortunately, in 1993, the business began to take off.

One day as he was watching TV, he noticed ads for 1-800-DENTIST and 1-800-FLOWERS. Herrera remembered a Forbes article he had read about the growing popularity of 1-800 numbers, and he thought, "Why not 1-800-AUTOPSY?" So he started his business. He purchased a van and painted 1-800-AUTOPSY on the side panels. Soon families began calling him for second opinions on suspicious deaths.

Herrera created his website www.1800autopsy.com to serve as a way to educate his customers about the positive side of the death business and to