Who Killed Doc?

Minnesotan David Cedergren served in Iraq as a combat medic. When he died while in service, his family was told the cause was a pre-existing physical condition. They were never convinced, and a year-long investigation by KSTP-TV proved them right. “Doc” Cedergren was electrocuted while showering in makeshift facilities. In the course of this investigation, other soldiers revealed a pattern of neglect. Officers had been repeatedly warned of the hazardous conditions. Numerous accounts cited electrical shocks in the shoddily constructed showers. One document detailed the hiring of older Iraqi workers to repair the facilities because “if they had lived this long they would know how to fix the problems.” As a result of these reports, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner changed the way the remains of service members killed worldwide are tracked, to ensure that families of the fallen are notified of changes in autopsy reports or cause of death information. KSTP demonstrates that often means attention to a single individual, a single family, a single problem. For providing this attention and securing both personal comfort and public action, a Peabody Award is presented to Who Killed Doc?