Medical examiners fight to keep accreditation while overwhelmed by opioid crisis

Medical examiners in metro Detroit have become overwhelmed in the past few years as the number of drug-related deaths continues to rise.  “The days when we come in and have no cases on any given day or one or two, they are pretty much gone,” said Dr. Daniel Spitz, a medical examiner in Macomb County.  In Macomb County, the drug-related deaths jumped from 280 in 2015 to 380 in 2017, greatly increasing the workload and stress on a facility with only two medical examiners.