Death is no respecter of persons — regardless of age, income, gender, status — eventually, the Grim Reaper comes to call on everyone.
And regardless of the circumstances of the death, even when expected due to an illness or advanced age, the impact upon the living is emotional.
However, when death comes unexpectedly, under tragic circumstances, the impact upon the living is devastating.
'Why?' is the hardest question of all and sometimes may never be answered.
To answer the 'how?' aspect of a sudden, unexpected death, however, a detailed forensic evaluation is sometimes required.
Richard and Deborah Zuniga serve as medical field investigators for the Office of the Medical Examiner and basically, are on call 24 hours a day. They are called to crime scenes, accidents and homes for sudden, unexplained deaths, where they make an initial determination as to cause of death and determine whether an autopsy is warranted to reach a definitive cause of death.
The Zunigas came into the service of the Office of the Medical Investigator because of their dedication to saving lives and helping people, as well as comforting survivors when death has its way.
Deborah has been a registered nurse for three years now, but has been in the medical field since 1984, working on an ambulance crew, for physician's offices and hospitals. She currently is a nurse with J & J Home Care of Artesia and works as needed with VistaCare Hospice of Carlsbad, to serve their Artesia patients.
Richard is a Artesia Fire Department lieutenant, serving nearly 17 years as a firefighter and 24 years with EMS.
"Deborah and I have been doing this for like seven years now," Richard explains. "We just basically work good together. I do one thing, she does the other, we alternate so that we don't get burned out on one particular thing."
Working good together is a big part of the Zunigas lives and the caring and respect they show for one another in their personal relationship and with their family, transcends to their professional arenas. This is a part of the human factor which they bring to the job of medical field investigator. By regarding the decedents as persons, not merely as statistics or crimes, they are able to give comfort to families as well as answers to law enforcement, while maintaining the dignity of life in the venue of death.
Deborah explains, "Whether it be nursing or OMI or any of this, I don't want anybody to have to go through a loss or an illness, but if they do, then I want to be there to try to help them through it."
Through their combined years of training and experience, the Zunigas are well prepared to deal with the many aspects of death and dying in a professional manner and to provide comfort and condolence when called upon to do so.
While this type of service is not easy, it is necessary. "You basically get to deal with people, as far as the family members, on a one-on-one basis," Richard says.
"Sometimes you have to go to the family members and tell them that a loved on has passed away — the reaction that I get from them is not a rewarding circumstance, but it's just a matter of ... you're there to comfort them in any way that you can, and of course, you really can't because at that particular time they feel a great loss and you're just basically there to assist them in any way you can."
The approach that the Zunigas take with their OMI role is not unlike their other roles of serving people, Richard explains. "Like with EMS, you're trying to treat the (physical) pain, where with OMI you're dealing more with emotions."
OMI is based in Albuquerque and affiliated with the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. To qualify as a medical field investigator, Richard tells the Daily Press, "You have to have some kind of a medical background ... they basically train you how to do certain things - how to deal with people one-on-one, how to do crime scene investigations, how to do a toxicology on the deceased."
The purpose of the OMI, according to the Zunigas, is basically that any time an individual dies outside a medical facility, OMI has to get involved. The only people authorized to pronounce a person dead are medical doctors and medical field investigators.
In order for the state to issue a death certificate, they have to know the cause of death, which must sometimes be determined by a post mortem examination.
When a person dies outside a medical facility, a doctor usually is not involved, unless the decedent was their patient and the death was due to natural causes.
In a trauma situation, a doctor usually cannot sign a death certificate.
An autopsy is a part of an investigation and is a medical legal record, but is not always necessary. "Sometimes, if it's a clear-cut case ... and all agencies involved are satisfied that there was no foul play involved, then all we do is a toxicology," Richard explains. "Homicides will be autopsied, infant deaths will be autopsied.
"Basically, on every call, you have to treat it as a homicide; not that that's the cause, but you have to cover every avenue, dot all your I's and cross all your T's," is the attitude to making sure all information is gathered and properly processed, according to the Zunigas.
The field investigators, they say, are the eyes and ears and hands of the pathologist — putting all the facts together.
"We don't actually do the autopsy, but we do a toxicology, if the state is going to issue a death certificate and no autopsy is ordered, they want a toxicology on the deceased."
According to Richard, "It's never a rewarding job, it's not a rewarding job — you see all avenues, all types of death — in the EMS field, you basically treat the patient and sometimes they expire before you get there, sometimes it's a save, sometimes they expire while in the ER — you just do the best you can while trying to save that life. In OMI, you go beyond that, to find the who, what, where, when and why."
There are three other investigators; Jo Lynn and Sonny Hope and Johnny Morgan, Richard explains. "We cover all of Northern Eddy County. There have been times we've had to go into Chaves County and at one time, Carlsbad didn't have any investigators, so Deborah and I covered the entire county."
All in all, Richard and Deborah are extraordinary persons in extreme circumstances, who in the quiet moments, enjoy simply being.
The Zunigas attend church at the Westside Church of Christ. They have five children; David, Sandra, Jennifer, Ryan and Jarod and are looking forward to the arrival of their 12th grandchild this year. They also enjoy the company of kittens and a cat.