When most people hear “speech-language pathologist,” they think communication. They do not think choking deaths, aspiration pneumonia, or nursing home litigation. In this episode, Dr. Brian Woodruff talks with Liz McKinney, a forensic speech-language pathologist with eighteen years of clinical experience and owner of Forensic SLP Consulting Services, who has been retained in more than thirty plaintiff and defense matters.
Liz explains why swallowing, not speech, is the core of what a geriatric SLP does, and what that means when a case involves a diet texture, a supervision level, or a hot dog that was never cut up. She walks through how she reconstructs a case from records alone: the speech pathology notes, the nursing and CNA documentation, the EMT call log that often tells a different story, and the death certificate. She describes the mechanics of aspiration and why silent aspiration is so dangerous in patients with impaired sensation from dementia, stroke, or a recently removed breathing tube.
The conversation also covers the hard line between standard of care and causation, and why a non-physician expert has to resist the pull toward a conclusion that feels like common sense. Liz shares how she got into expert work almost by accident in 2023, how she built a practice on LinkedIn and legal nurse consultant relationships without ever building a website, and the report structure and endnote habit that make her opinions traceable at deposition.
Connect with Liz at emckinneyslp@gmail.com.
To learn more about Brian Woodruff, go to his personal website, Child Neurology Expert.
