SICK

Gruesome stash: Dr Michael Berkland, a former medical examiner, kept human brains, lungs, hearts and tissue in a storage unit in Florida for years
A former medical examiner stashed human brains, hearts and lungs from more than 100 people in soda cups and food containers inside a storage unit, authorities have said.
The remains, which included tissue samples and 10 brains, were found in a unit in Pensacola, Florida that had previously been rented by Dr. Michael Berkland.
A man made the grisly discovery when he bought the contents of the unit at an auction last week after Berkland stopped paying his rent – but he immediately called police after opening its doors to a pungent smell.
Investigators found formaldehyde, which is used to preserve bodies, leaking from a 32-ounce drink cup with a cracked lid – and opened it to find a human heart inside.
No charges have been filed against Berkland but officials are trying to determine if he broke any laws regarding biomedical waste and the storing and disposing of human remains.
Medical Examiner Dr. Andi Minyard told the Pensacola News Journal the remains appear to be from private autopsies Berkland performed at local funeral homes between 1997 and 2007.
‘It’s a horrible thing to know that your uncle’s brain is sitting in some storage shed that got sold at an auction,’ Dr. Minyard said.
Berkland worked at the medical examiner’s office from 1997 until 2003, when he was fired for failing to complete autopsy reports. He also conducted private autopsies in the area.

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Jeff Martin, director of the Medical Examiner’s Office, added: ‘How horrible it is for the families of these deceased to think that someone’s loved one’s organs are basically rotting away in a storage unit somewhere.’
The medical examiner’s office is now cross-referencing names in their database during that time period to try to locate exactly where the organs came from, Martin said.

Scene: The organs were discovered when Berkland’s unit at Unlce Bob’s Self Storage, pictured, was auctioned off. The new renter noticed a pungent smell inside and called authorities
Minyard added there is a good chance that none of remains are from cases that Berkland handled as a medical examiner as the numbering system he used was not the same as their office.
Officials are also trying to find relatives of the victims, but admit they could struggle.

‘It’s a horrible thing to know that your uncle’s brain is sitting in some storage shed that got sold at an auction’
Dr. Andi Minyard, medical examiner
‘The unfortunate thing is several of the tissue buckets and several of the brains don’t have any labels on them at all, so we have no idea who they would have belonged to,’ she said.
It is not known why Berkland was storing the organs there; Martin said it is unlikely he was selling them as they were so crudely preserved.
Some were in Tupperware containers and ‘a lot of those containers were emptied because they had cracked through so all of those caustic chemicals were leaking out somewhere,’ Martin said.
Uncle Bob’s Self Storage, the company that runs the unit, said Berkland claimed he would use the space to keep household goods and office furniture there.
‘We never had any indication that anything was out of the ordinary, nor did anyone on our management team ever notice anything amiss during daily property checks,’ Diane Piegza, vice president of corporate communications, said.

Unsettling: The organs had been stored in formaldehyde solution, as seen in this file picture, but in many cases it had leaked out of the food containers. Officals are now trying to identify the victims
State Attorney Bill Eddins added: ‘We’re in the process of reviewing the facts and researching the law to determine whether a crime has been committed. We do intend to talk to Dr. Berkland – it is my belief he is still local – and learn his reasons for keeping body parts there.’
Florida was not the only place Berkland ran into trouble over his work. In 1996, he was fired as a contract medical examiner in Jackson County, Missouri, in a dispute over his autopsy reports.
Berkland had incorrectly stated on the reports that he had taken sections of several brains to be preserved as specimens for medical conferences and teaching purposes, AP reported.
He claimed they were ‘proofreading errors’ and the Missouri attorney general’s office found they did not jeopardize any criminal cases.
Berkland complained the actions against him were unfair because he was unable to present evidence in his defense. His doctor’s license was ultimately revoked there.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2194863/Dr-Michael-Berkland-Medical-examiner-stashed-hearts-brains-lungs-storage-unit.html#ixzz24u6cyLoH