Ryan Blumenthal speaks for dead to protect living

Forensic pathologist Professor Ryan Blumenthal’s day job is in the cold world of the mortuary, not up in lights on a stage in front of 600 people, which is where he found himself at the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards on 22 October, taking home the Absa Professional Excellence Award.

Most days, he said, he has to look past mud and blood to try to solve why people die.

“Forensic pathology services and the people practising forensics in South Africa need to be acknowledged,” said Blumenthal, on receiving his award. “These are special people. They are at death scenes using science. They are up at the wee hours of the morning. They work under dire conditions.”

Blumenthal described the award as an honour and said it was unexpected. He dedicated it to his colleagues, working in awful circumstances.

Colleagues in war-torn Israel are doing hugely important work, Blumenthal said. “The world needs to know what happened. Forensic pathologists are key players in documenting it.” This work is crucial especially because of the conspiracy theories and denialism that arises in “about five to 10 to 20 years” after an atrocity happens.

“No-one else can combat this except for forensic science and forensic pathology. We literally speak for the dead to protect the living. When I first heard this quote by Thomas D’Arcy McGee, I thought it a bit arrogant. I mean, who am I to talk for the dead? I must talk for myself. But now, as I get older and do more autopsies, I realise that this is what this job is.

“Ultimately, there’s always a need for truth and integrity in society. No-one else is going to solve how and why people die. This is what we do. We’re the final catch net to keep society civilised.”

Blumenthal described an autopsy as “the biggest procedure in medicine”, saying there should be no questions about the cause of death after the autopsy is conducted.

Sporting a tie which featured a lightning strike, he said, “I did my PhD on lightning. I was the star of Lightning Pathologist, the eight-part documentary on [environmental news channel] People’s Weather, which was seen by about 2.2 million people.”

In August, Blumenthal received the National Research Foundation Award for the communication of science. “I don’t do stuff for honours and awards though,” he said, “I do stuff just for doing stuff. So that was a totally unexpected surprise. The award is a trip to America to attend the American Academy of Sciences Conference, one of the top science conferences next year.”

Although Blumenthal spends his days in the mortuary and his office, he appears be a “Ryan of all trades, master of at least some”. “I’m a sleight-of-hand magician. I’m a writer, bird watcher, mountain biker, and poet,” he says. He holds the South African record for one of the longest-running sleight-of-hand magic shows, and has published a bestselling book, Autopsy – Life in the Trenches with a Forensic Pathologist in Africa.

“I’ve recently written a new bestseller titled Risking Life or Death. It’s about the reader. It’s about the viewer, the watcher. It’s all about lessons for the living from the autopsy table.”