"Forensic radiography is rather rare nowadays, but in the early 1990s, we provided radiographic support for coroner’s cases where death occurred under suspicious circumstances.
As final-year students in radiography in the early 1990s, two classmates and I had our clinical attachment at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). One day we followed a radiographer to the mortuary to perform an x-ray on a drowned victim.
The late Professor Chao Tzee Cheng, who was a renowned forensic pathologist, had ordered a skull x-ray as he suspected foul play and wanted to rule out any unnatural causes of death. I wouldn’t exactly say that the experience was frightening but rather, the atmosphere was quite solemn and there was this sense of feeling very sorry for the victim, who was a young lady. I remember vividly that we helped to carry her body onto the table couch and even tried to wash away the sand from her hair as these would cast artefacts on the x-ray images.
As students, we tried our best and made ourselves useful in the situation and wished that our radiographic service would help to shed some light on the cause of the victim’s death."
- Mr Arthur Cheng, Senior Principal Radiographer, Department of Radiology, Sengkang General Hospital did a two-year attachment as a student at SGH before joining them fulltime in 1992. After 23 years of service, he joined Sengkang General Hospital and oversees the service operations of the Radiology department.
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