AUTOPSY ON WHEELS; FREE-LANCER'S BUSINESS IS FAR FROM DEAD.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

Like any other Southern California businessman, Vidal Herrera navigates the region's overlapping freeways every day to visit his customers.

But there is a major difference: His clients are dead.

The La Crescenta resident is a free-lance autopsy specialist. His business is Autopsy/Post Services Inc., which is run out of his fully equipped van. A network of 13 doctors certify his autopsy results.

On the front of his vehicle, 1-800-AUTOPSY is boldly emblazoned. The van's license plates read YSPOTUA, or autopsy spelled backward. It's a fitting tribute to a man whose nickname is El Muerto, ``The Dead One'' in Spanish.

``There's 1-800-DENTIST and 1-800-FLOWERS. I said, why not 1-800-AUTOPSY?'' asked the 45-year-old Latino entrepreneur rhetorically during a recent interview.

Indeed, a toll-free number is indispensable to a consumer-oriented business these days. But Herrera isn't stopping there. Grand plans for his business include selling autopsy franchises for $30,000 apiece, which doesn't include another $45,000 or so needed to buy the equipment.

He's also launching a mail-order catalog this fall, offering items like coffee mugs, shirts and pens. And he already has a World Wide Web site, www.1800autopsy.com.

Herrera sees opportunity where others see only the macabre. ``There's a huge demand for this,'' he said.

Cuts in health care services have led to downsizing of hospital staffs, hurting their ability to perform autopsies. About 5 percent to 7 percent of all hospital deaths are currently autopsied, down from 42 percent in 1965, according to the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, a trade journal by the College of American Pathologists in Northfield, Ill.

Demand for Herrera's services, which range from $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the complexities of the case, has been spurred by the decline in hospital autopsies. Concerns that hospital pathologists may be reluctant to disclose full details in some cases also prompt families to seek an outside autopsy, according to Ralph Torres, owner of the Angeleno Valley Mortuary in North Hollywood who uses Herrera's service.

Nationwide, there has been a rise in contract autopsies during the last four years, said Margaret Hastings, chief executive officer of The Institute of Medicine of Chicago.

As for Herrera, he has performed more than 20,000 autopsies since the age of 23. ``He's got the passion for it,'' Torres, a friend of 10 years, observed.

Herrera was introduced to the work when he was 16. A friend who worked at a county morgue gave him a tour of his workplace, including a room with eight dissected bodies.

``It turned my stomach,'' Herrera recalled. But it didn't deter him from eventually working there as a nursing attendant. He worked his way up to autopsy technician and forensic medical photographer.

In 1984, while lifting a 284-pound corpse, Herrera ruptured three discs. His back injury prevented him from working, so he lived off his pension and started rehabilitation on his injury.

Four years later, an acquaintance told Herrera that a West Los Angeles medical center needed an autopsy technician. The hospital offered him a $13,000-a-year job, which he turned down.

The medical center asked if he would consider working as a vendor contractor, on a case-by-case basis. That opportunity created Herrera's business.

Today, Herrera, who walks with a cane, has high hopes for his business. His 14-year-old son and his 16-year-old niece are showing interest as well, he said.

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PHOTO (color) Vidal Herrera of La Crescenta got the idea for his free-lance autopsy service back in the late '80s. He plans on selling franchises.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News