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Autopsy: Traficant died of asphyxia
YOUNGSTOWN
Former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. died of “positional and compression asphyxia” after a tractor he was driving accidentally fell on him, making him unable to breathe, according to an autopsy.
The Mahoning County Coroner’s Office provided the results Monday to The Vindicator of Traficant’s official autopsy.
The seven-page report’s cause of death was consistent with preliminary autopsy results. The autopsy was done Sept. 29, 2014, two days after the 73-year-old former congressman died.
As a result of the Sept. 23, 2014, accident on his family farm in Greenford, Traficant suffered several fractures to ribs on the left side of his body and a laceration above his left eye, wrote Dr. Joseph S. Ohr, the county’s forensic pathologist, in the autopsy report.
Traficant was in critical condition when taken to the hospital Sept. 23. Two days later, tests were done by neurologists who “identified minimal brainstem functions with no evidence of higher cortical function. His prognosis for a meaningful neurological recovery was listed as both ‘extremely guarded’ and ‘very poor,’” according to a report from Courtney Bouchie, an investigator with the coroner’s office. That report was included with Dr. Ohr’s autopsy results.
Traficant’s family opted to “withdraw aggressive care” when it was determined there was no hope for his recovery, Bouchie wrote.
Traficant died at 11:17 a.m. Sept. 27.
At his request, Traficant’s family donated his eyes, skin and bone marrow.
Probably the Mahoning Valley’s best known national political figure of the latter half of the 20th century, Traficant served as Mahoning County sheriff from 1981 to 1985, leaving after he was elected to the U.S. House. He served 17 years before the House expelled him in July 2002 as a result of being convicted of 10 felonies including racketeering, bribery and tax evasion. He spent seven years in federal prison before being released in September 2009.