The public was invited to enjoy coffee and doughnuts with Lehigh County Coroner Dan Buglio and his staff June 17 at the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office and Forensic Center, 4350 Broadway, South Whitehall.

Visitors were then given a tour of the facility and a discussion of the functions of the office.

Guests were shown the autopsy area, a large refrigerated room for maintaining the deceased at a safe temperature.

During the tour, visitors were brought up to date on a significant upgrade to the office. They will be acquiring a computed tomography scanner by the end of 2025. The scanner will be specific to cadaver scans and will provide rapid and useful information regarding the cause of death of a person. It will also reduce the need for a full autopsy in certain cases.

Other imaging modalities used by the coroner’s staff include a digital mobile X-ray unit for locating and identifying foreign bodies in the corpse including, but not limited to, bullets.

Also in use is a digital dental unit which is instrumental in identifying unknown persons who have died without family knowledge or the body has been severely damaged due to fire, degradation or other causes.

A very useful tool is the blood analysis unit which provides rapid analysis of various drugs in the samples. This capability greatly reduces the time needed for results as previously the samples had to be sent to a remote laboratory.