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Until now, the doctor could not explain why he chose this job. He said this job is like his destiny. There was a time Tiep was “addicted” to this special job because he felt uncomfortable without conducting any operation in a week.
The doctor is writing a book about all forms of death, from hanging to suffocation and death by the impacts of external force. “I want to devote my entire 27 years of experience to make a scientific work to serve forensic examination,” he said.
Doctor Tiep said that working with corpses is a very special job, which is only for men with iron will. He now keeps the files and photos of over 3,000 corpses that he operated in the last 27 years.
“I was born in Thanh Hoa province. In 1959, I was admitted to three universities: the Hanoi Polytechnic University, the Hanoi Fine-art University and the Hanoi Medical University. I wondered between the fine-art and medical universities because I have an aptitude for drawing. Finally, I chose the medical school because I thought that this job can save people,” he recalled.
In 1964, Tiep graduated at the time the Vietnam War was very fierce. The young doctor was sent to the central province of Quang Binh – the firing-line. He worked on the bank of the Gianh River. He saved many people who were victims of the US’ bombs. Quang Binh authorities conferred certificates of merit for the young doctor.
Tiep was then appointed as the head of the enterology and obstetric ward of the Thanh Mien hospital in the northern province of Hai Duong. During ten years there, doctor Tiep performed thousands of operations for victims of bombs and mines, traffic accidents and industrial accidents.
In 1974, he was appointed as doctor of Hai Phong city’s Police Bureau. He went to the former USSR to study forensic science. He began to work with corpses.
The first time
Doctor Tiep said that it was a big challenge for him to make the first autopsy, because making surgery for living people is conducted in an aseptic environment and doctors can measure the patient’s heart and respiratory rhythm. Autopsy is completely different and doctors are often very tense. Apart from operating stomach, doctors have to open victims’ brain to seek the reason causing their death.
“Initially, I could not be familiar with this job. I vomited whenever I thought of corpses. I was obsessed by corpses all the time. I was managed to quit this job but then I encouraged myself to try,” Tiep said.
After working with more than 3,000 corpses, doctor Tiep has known all forms of death but he will never forget the first case.
He recalls: “In 1967, a group of children smelled reeking from a broken petrol tank at a crossroad on Ngo Quyen street, Hai Phong city. They looked into the tank and saw a dead body inside. I was requested to make an autopsy. The cover of the tank was too small so I could not get into the tank while the body was being disintegrated strongly so it was unable to take it out. Police officers finally cut off the cover for me to get into the tank to perform the operation”.
“I just touched the dead body by a scissors, thousands of insects flew off. They covered my face; they pecked into my body, my nose… I could not describe that consternated feeling! After cutting off the victim’s clothes, the smell was so fetid. I thought of giving up the autopsy. But I continued the job with the encouragement of people around me. It turned out that the victim starved to death”.
After the autopsy, Tiep was sick for three days. He could not eat or drink. He also dared not to be close to his wife and children. He only thought of quitting the job. But finally, he stayed with the job and has done it for nearly three decades.
Apart from performing autopsies, doctor Tiep is very enthusiastic to bury unknown dead people, especially drown corpses. In his life, he has seen many fearful drown corpses.
In 1982, a corpse drifted to the coast of An Hai Island in Hai Phong city. Locals did not want to touch the corpse because it is a taboo that if anyone touches drown corpses, they will face bad luck.
That was the corpse of a middle-aged man, which was bloated as a giant. Anyone who saw the corpse was very scared and did not dare to come close to it. Only doctor Tiep calmly approached the corpse to do his job. He verified that the man was dead by water asphyxia. His job was done.
However, hired workers and militias who were responsible to bury the unfortunate man dared not touch the dead. Worse, the victim was swollen and he did not fit the coffin. Doctor Tiep was entreated to help.
Doctor Tiep flashed an idea: he turned the coffin sideways, put the back of the dead to the coffin and gradually pushed each part of the corpse into the coffin. After that, he turned the coffin to the normal position. Thanks to the dead weight and the slippery skin, the corpse slid into the coffin.
Tiep’s operation to put a drown corpse into coffin has become “textbook” for similar cases after that.
Difficulties
In his career, doctor Tiep had to face many difficult cases. If he made wrong conclusions, he would have had to go to jail.
In 1993, there was a case related to two men in Thuy Nguyen District, Hai Phong city, named Choc and Phan.
The case originated from an absurd reason. Phan’s dog beat Choc’s son. The two men quarreled, battled with each other and felt to a pond together. Choc could swim so he got into the shore and went home while Phan could not swim and drown after several minutes.
“I conducted the autopsy of Phan and concluded that Phan had drowned but Phan’s family did not agree. They complained to many agencies. They insisted that Phan was dead because he was beaten in the head by Choc, since they detected a blood stain behind Phan’s neck,” Tiep recalled.
High-ranking forensic experts from Hanoi made another autopsy four months after Phan was buried. Before the autopsy, Major-general Cao Phong from the Central Forensic Institute said: “If doctor Tiep makes wrong autopsy, he may be arrested”. Tiep was worried but he still believed in himself.
Phan’s body was exhumed for the second autopsy. Forensic experts worked very carefully with each part of the body, though it was quickly breaking up.
“I brought Phan’s head to my office for further test,” doctor Tiep said.
“I still remembered that day. It rained heavily. I was cleaning Phan’s skull alone at the Tam Bac Lake when a man saw me. He suspected me to be a killer. He immediately reported to the local police station. I had just put the skull into the basket of my bike, two police officers approached to invite me to the police station for investigation. I explained to them and they let me go. Perhaps they did not want to involve with such an awful thing,” he added.
Results of the second autopsy and other methods confirmed that Phan haddrowned. Tiep held Phan’s skull for three years until Phan’s family asked for it back to make exhumation for him.
Quietly opening criminal investigations
In 1995, an unknown drown corpse was discovered in Ben Binh, Hai Phong. Police brought the corpse to the Ninh Hai cemetery in Duong Kinh district, Hai Phong.
At around 8 pm of a cold winter day, Tiep was requested to make an autopsy for this corpse in the Ninh Hai cemetery. There was no power in the cemetery, so he had to perform the autopsy in the light from the headlamps of a car.
Other members in the working group, including the driver could not stand the cold and dared not to see the decomposed corpse, they went away, leaving Tiep alone with the corpse in the cemetery, at midnight.
After several hours working on the corpse, he found out that the victim was dead by drowning. He laid the corpse in a coffin alone and called others to return to his office when the morning came.
In 1997, he was asked to make autopsy for a 30-year-old’s dead body, who was discovered hanging in a cave in Thuy Nguyen district, Hai Phong city.
Doctor Tiep and his fellows climbed up to the cave at noonday in the summer. He quickly did an autopsy and defined that the man died of suffocation from hanging. Later the man was confirmed to be a miner at a quarry, a senior drug addict. He committed suicide for losing strength and avoiding addiction.
Tiep helped police capture many criminals who had been hunted for tens of years thanks to his careful style of work.
If he is asked by any case of over 3,000 cases that he made autopsy for the last 27 years, Tiep can find out the file in several minutes. He said: “These documents were prepared in many years. I took notes of every case to write a book about all forms of death to serve the criminal sciences”.
He said forensic work is now highly appreciated. Forensic experts don’t have to work in hard conditions any more. Allowan is also raised.
“Previously, I received only VND50,000 ($3) for an autopsy, which was not enough for a midnight meal after struggling with corpses. The allowance is now VND3 million ($150) for an autopsy. In the past, to take the brain for investigation, I had to saw manually, now they have electric saws so the job is much easier.”
“However, forensic doctors only wait for opportunities to say goodbye to this job. They need more support to live with this job,” doctor Tiep said.
Current life
After retirement, doctor Tiep opened a private consulting-room at his home. He worked for five years more at home.
“Now I only eat and attend meetings and social events. I’m the leader of the group of retired people in my ward, the leader of the group of retired police officers and the chief of the local medical association. I worked with corpses many years but it is lucky that I’m still healthy at the age of 72. I’m still able to shoulder social and family works,” he said and looked tenderly at his wife, a woman from the northern province of Bac Giang.
Thanks to the support from his family, with two daughters – a 2nd and an 8th grade pupil, doctor Tiep was firm enough to follow his special job – a forensic doctor.
Dan Viet
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