Summit County has stopped conducting autopsies for three other counties as it wrestles with a staffing shortage and spike in drug-related deaths, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.
The workload got too great and there was a concern about making a mistake in a delicate case, county medical examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler told the Journal.
"We're just reaching a point of exhaustion," Kohler said.
In all, 3,757 deaths were reported to the Summit medical examiner last year. And the office ended up handling 729 cases from Summit and 212 autopsies for other counties -- ranging from drug overdoses to car accidents, according to the report.
