Lewis County Coroner Breaks Down 2022 Deaths to Date

Jul. 6—Of all the updates the Lewis County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) hears in a month, the meeting with the coroner's office is by far the most gruesome.

Including conversations about organ harvesting, autopsies and the storage of evidence containing biological samples — this meeting is aptly held before lunchtime.

On Tuesday, Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod included in his update a total of the county's deaths in 2022. As of that morning, July 6, there had been 457 deaths in the year of 2022. Divided by the 186 days since the year's beginning, that's an average of three per day.

McLeod also broke those numbers down further, listing one as a homicide, six suicides, 25 accidental deaths, four with undetermined causes and five pending toxicology. Out of the accidental deaths, 11 were drug-related. Methamphetamine is the leading cause of overdoses in Lewis County, which was also the case in 2020 and 2021.

Some of the 11 drug-related deaths have come from fentanyl, McLeod said, but only when ingested concurrently with other drugs.

In 2020 and 2021, ingestion of fentanyl was the second highest contributor to drug-related deaths.

Last year, the county had a total of 944 deaths, up from 874 in 2020 and 810 in 2019. If the average of three deaths per day continues, 2022 will mark yet another jump in total deaths locally.

Of 2021's 944 deaths, 849 were of natural causes. According to Lewis County Public Health and Social Services (LCPHSS), 161 of those were related to COVID-19, which could account for the large jump between years. As of June 30, 2022, LCPHSS has reviewed and reported 57 COVID-19 related deaths this year.

Of the other 2021 deaths, two were recorded as homicides, 13 as suicides, 42 accidental, 10 undetermined and 25 were department assists, which is when the coroner's office assists another law enforcement agency with a task, such as identifying human remains.

For comparison, of the 874 deaths in 2020, 791 were of natural causes, three were homicides, 18 were suicides, 43 were accidental, eight were deaths of undetermined cause and 11 were department assists.

Other updates from McLeod on Tuesday included a run-through of his office's community partnerships, which includes a new system where deaths at home can now be reported for the possible donation of corneas or lung bones, thanks to a team effort with the Organ Procurement Organization. Previously, organs could only be harvested from those in traffic collisions involving speed under Washington State Patrol's jurisdiction, or from bodies after death in a hospital.

Participation in home death organ donation is completely voluntary for families.

Other partners to the office include a program called Cribs for Kids, where people can donate checks of $70 to the coroner's office in order to donate a crib to families in need; the Lewis County and state drowning prevention coalitions, and several other organizations. To find out more about community partnerships or ask about creating a new one between the coroner and a civic group, call 360-740-1376.

According to past reporting in The Chronicle and in previous pleas to the BOCC, McLeod has asked for more funding for his staff and the department. In July 2021, casual employees at the office made between $14 to $16 an hour, despite the severity of their positions requiring over 80 hours of prior training and the job itself demanding hours — and sometimes full days — at a time with families of decedents.

"I think over time that this particular department has been overlooked in the entire budget," Commissioner Lindsey Pollock said around this time last year.

Now, the office's casual employees are paid just over $23 an hour. McLeod also reported Tuesday the office had secured a grant for a forensic drying chamber, a device used to store evidence with biological samples, such as blood-stained clothing. For nearly a decade, the office has been using its own makeshift version of a chamber.

"One of our guys cut a hole in it and put a fan in there, a small fan, and that was used as the drying chamber. That fan has been running 24 hours a day for about nine years now. I don't know the brand of the fan, but if I get it, that's the one you wanna buy," McLeod said.