Incidents
BC-FORT with other Canadian Dentists Respond After Thailand Tsunami
Canadian forensic odontologists responded to Thailand to assist
the Interpol-directed disaster victim identification (DVI) efforts there.
More than 5,500 souls perished in Thailand. The Royal Thailand Police Force
with the assistance of Interpol and the Australian Federal Police brought
together forensic experts from 37 countries to attempt to recover and identify
the victims of this catastrophe.
Dr. Sweet and the BOLD Laboratory (www.boldlab.org) were contacted to respond with a team of forensic dentists as part of the Canadian DVI effort. This effort commenced on January 4, 2005 and continued for 239 days until August 30, 2005.
Background
In Canada there are approximately 30 dentists that work part-time to identify
deceased persons for medico-legal agencies, such as police, coroners
and medical examiners. The majority of these dentists are private practitioners;
three are university professors. In 1992, forensic dentists and allied
dental
personnel in the western provinces began to assemble a disaster response
team under the aegis of the Chief Coroner of British Columbia. Since
then this group has grown to a well-trained response team of 81 members.
More
recently, the Chief Coroner of Ontario also commenced development of
a comprehensive response plan and assembled a core group of dental personnel.
The dentists
that responded in Thailand are members of these two teams.
The Need for a Dental Response
Comparison of antemortem dental records to postmortem dental characteristics
is a proven identification method. This method can be used alone if sufficient
dental data are present or in combination with other established identification
methods, such as fingerprint or DNA comparisons. A RCM Police team was
deployed to Thailand soon after the tsunami to assess the damage and
support the
disaster recovery effort. This 10-member police team comprised forensic
specialists; five of whom were selected because of their current experience
in searching for missing persons in Canada's largest criminal investigation
in Coquitlam, B.C. As part of this large investigation, local forensic
odontology experts are using dental methods to assist the police specialists.
It was
believed that dental methods would also be needed in Thailand if victims'
bodies could be recovered. Subsequently, a RCMP Task Force was established
in B.C. to spearhead the Canadian response to the tsunami.
Dr. Sweet requested BC-FORT members and forensic dentists from elsewhere
in Canada to assist the Task Force to a) recover as much dental data as
possible for the Canadians reported missing after the tsunami, and b) assemble
a team
of experienced forensic dentists to respond to the site to identify the
victims.
Missing Canadians
With the assistance of provincial dental organizations and Task Force members
who contacted next-of-kin, antemortem dental records were recovered for
each of Canada's missing. These records were digitized at ultra-high
resolution as insurance against loss in transit. Then they were dispatched
via courier
to the Interpol DVI Centre in Phuket. Early in the response when courier
shipments were unreliable, certain dental records were delivered to the
site in person by team members when they were deployed.
Subsequently,
it became necessary to increase the speed and efficiency of the transfer of
antemortem data to the site. To accomplish this, with the
assistance of IT experts at the UBC Faculty of Dentistry, a secure, encrypted
aspect of this website was set up. This allowed identification specialists
in Thailand to display records for missing Canadians. The method was very
effective. Due to the success of this web-based protocol, the Task Force
expanded the scope of the data transferred using this method to include fingerprint
records, medical records and photographic images of clothing, jewelry,
etc.
DVI teams from other countries adopted this technique to transmit their
missing persons' data. Use of this technology was seen as a significant contribution
to the overall effort by the Canadian forensic odontology team.
Deployments
Fifteen dentists were dispatched to Thailand to work in the DVI response.
Although the work was very demanding and exhausting, each dentist asked
to return to the IMC to continue the identification effort there if this
was required. Team members are:
British Columbia Ontario Alberta Yukon |
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Initially each odontologist was deployed alone for a two-week tour of duty.
With travel added, each deployment was 19-20 days. Not long after the start
of the response, it was decided to send teams of two dentists because there
was an acute need for odontology expertise during this phase of the DVI effort.
Additionally, it was decided to increase the dentists' time in theatre to
25-26 days, which allowed them to be more productive since it increased the
productivity to training ratio.
Duties
At the DVI Centre, Canadian odontologists participated with an international
team in all aspects of the dental DVI response. General duties included
recovery, analysis and comparison of dental records from the home
countries to dental records recovered from the found human remains. 
Additionally,
the Canadian team members were involved in analyzing and interpreting
records
that contained very limited data. They attempted to extract as much
meaningful information as possible from both antemortem and postmortem
sources. Working
with Australian commanders, team members were placed in leadership
roles due to their high level of forensic expertise and exemplary work
ethic.
The Canadians were requested on several occasions to test new versions of the computer software used by Interpol when these improved versions were brought online. Significantly, team members were involved in troubleshooting problems with certain protocols encountered by the on-site commanders. At times they were involved in refining specific quality control measures to improve the way dental information was managed.
Team members performed dental autopsies and recovered dental data from deceased
victims at the Site 2 mortuary at Mai Khao, Phuket. Also at Site 2, they consolidated
victims' records, verified identifications prior to release of bodies, and
assisted DNA experts to catalogue and export postmortem forensic samples for
analysis. Once a Canadian victim was identified, in some cases the dentists
were present along with other Canadian team members to witness the solemn
ceremonies at a Buddhist temple. This was very beneficial for the dentists
since it provided an opportunity for them to see the full spectrum of the
identification response from antemortem record collection to laying the victim
to rest.
Impact
Canadian forensic odontologists contributed much more than expected through
their very hard work and seemingly limitless enthusiasm. The team
leader's briefing notes record many outstanding contributions that were
made by each
member during each deployment. Various site commanders from Interpol
and other team leaders from Australia, Belgium and Britain, contacted
the team
leader several times throughout the response with news of excellent
work by the Canadian dentists. In many cases, Canadians successfully
resolved
refractory cases that were unable to be identified by others.
The Canadian forensic odontology team made two donations at the end of
their time in Phuket. First, on behalf of the people of Canada, the team
donated
a modern x-ray film processor that can be used without a darkroom to
develop x-ray films. This was given to the Dental Department of the Phang-Nga
General
Hospital to improve the quality of oral care for the needy patients
there. Second, the forensic dentists arranged and paid for the dental treatment
of
two staff members that worked in the Canadian Consular Office at the
Sheraton Grand Laguna Resort. These staff members had supported the dental
team from
the satellite Consular Office at the resort throughout the response.
Acknowledgements
As the dental response team leader, I wish to extend a sincere thank you
and my appreciation to the dedicated forensic dentists, as well as
RCMP fingerprint specialists and liaison officers, and Embassy officials,
that
unselfishly contributed their expertise in Phuket. These individuals
left their own families and livelihood for extended periods of time
to work
in extreme tropical conditions to provide victims' families with
answers that could not have been provided otherwise.
Dr. David Sweet
September 20, 2005
