Suicide by train with complete voluntary decapitation is an extremely rare event, however, well known and reported in the scientific literature. The authors analyze 4 cases of suicide with complete decapitation by main line or underground train that were subjected to medico-legal autopsies at the Milan Institute of Legal Medicine ...

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The incidence and pattern of suicide vary from country to country. Cultural, religious and social value plays a vital role. Hanging, poisoning, drowning are the common methods of committing suicide. Suicide by incising one's own throat without hesitation ...

The aim of this study was to assess the role of postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) as an alternative for autopsy in determining the cause of death and the identification of specific injuries in trauma victims. A systematic review was performed by searching the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases. Articles were eligible ...

Suicides with stud guns are uncommon, but are well documented in the literature. On rare occasions, stud guns are also used as a homicide weapon. This case report describes an extended suicide in which a husband killed his wife and their two dogs, which lived on the property. The husband ...

Compared to other antipsychotics quetiapine has been reported to be relatively safer in overdose. We report a case with paranoid schizophrenia who attempted suicide with 1400 mg of quetiapine and manifested drowsiness, supraventricular tachycardia (167/minute) and minimal ST depression in leads V1 to V6 on ECG; all other physiological parameters ...

We describe two cases of Clostridium glycolicum wound infections in immunocompetent adults. The bacterium was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. This is the third published report of the recovery of this organism from human clinical material and highlights the importance of the organism as a potential human pathogen. Our ...

Captive-bolt guns or slaughterer's guns are devices widely used in meat industry and private farmer households for slaughtering animal stocks. They consist of a simple cylindrical metal tube (barrel) with a metal bolt placed in their centre (around 9-15cm long and 1-1.5cm wide). The bolt is actuated by a trigger ...

We present the case of a patient in whom active new hair growth occurred around a wound after healing. This very rare phenomenon has not previously been reported in the literature. We postulate that, after the epidermis and hair follicles have been damaged by wounding, it is possible for them ...

A suicide pact is an agreement between two or more people to kill themselves. They represent 0.6-4.0 percent of all suicides, with the vast majority being double suicides. Double suicides are quite rare and are generally seen in old, married couples. We present a double suicide pact involving two young ...

A 21-year-old girl was fatally injured by her 25-year-old brother-in-law, who was deeply in love with her. She was shot in the abdomen with a locally-made pistol. The man then shot himself in the front of his head with the same gun. He died on the spot while the girl, ...

Suicides or suicide attempts with power saws (band, circular or chain saws) are rather rare events and only a few case reports exist in the forensic literature. The use of a band saw, in particular, has been extremely rare in cases of suicide. We report two cases of suicide that ...

We report the case of a 71-year-old woman with progressive dementia over the course of 4 years, characterized by prominent pyramidal signs and by the lack of ataxia and other cerebellar signs. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was not suspected during the patient's life. Autopsy brain tissue showed severe spongiform encephalopathy with ...

There was an outbreak of human Streptococcus suis (S. suis) infection in southwest China in 2005. The total number of documented patients was 204 and 38 of them died. Four cases were autopsied and are reported in this paper. The autopsies showed that multiple organs were involved, with a prominent ...

AIM: This paper uses the public record to explore the relationship between reputation damage and suicide. METHOD: The public record of the last 20 years was examined for examples of individuals without evidence of mental disorder who suffered actual or threatened reputation damage and suicided shortly thereafter. RESULTS: Fifteen individual ...

We encountered an autopsy case related to a terrorist attack using a ball-bearing bomb. The decedent was a 51-year-old male without significant medical histories. During dinner in a restaurant, the perpetrator suddenly exploded a ball-bearing bomb, the blast from which blew the victim off his chair. The victim was found ...

Penetrating stab wounds of the brain are uncommonly seen in modern times and occur almost exclusively in homicides. We report an unusual death by self-stabbing. A 24-year-old man was found dead at home, the handle of a kitchen knife protruding from his forehead. Data such as the psychiatric history of ...

Given the prevalence of rimfire and centerfire rifle usage in both suicidal and homicidal cases, there is a paucity of articles in the literature that focus specifically on rifle wounds. Gunshot wounds, in general, have been extensively studied with articles focusing on the types of injuries, weapons used, wound locations ...

Suicides without apparent antecedent causes present great difficulties for medical examiners and families alike. A case is presented of a young male suicide victim whose antemortem course did not demonstrate apparent psychopathology to either his family or fellow students. A journal written by the decedent was found, however, which revealed ...

Nitrogen is an inert gas that is a normal constituent of the air that we breathe. It is a suffocating gas that does not support life and that can be a cause of death by the displacement of oxygen in the atmosphere. The majority of deaths associated with nitrogen have ...

The authors describe a case of suicide in the workplace. A 45-year-old man employed by a fruit and vegetable packing company was found dead in a room containing a modified atmosphere for the packaging of fruits and vegetables. The rescue team measured the carbon monoxide (CO) concentration of the ambient ...

The victim (59-year-old male) used a long hemp rope tied between his neck and a cherry tree while attempting to drive his car away, resulting in complete decapitation. At autopsy, the decapitation wound of the head and the torso corresponded perfectly; a clear-cut severance plane was found at the bottom ...

Recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa, NovoSeven) has been licensed for treatment of haemophilia with inhibitors in Europe since 1996 and in North America since 1999. Overall, approximately 1.5 million doses have since been administered. Safety data from licensure to April 2003 revealed 25 thromboembolic (TE) adverse events (AE) from over 700 ...

AIM: We report an unusual case of "failed suicide" in an oldest old woman who was apparently "aging successfully". METHOD: This case was analysed in the light of a careful literature review. RESULTS: This was an unusual case of failed suicide, attempted by a 94-year-old woman who had planned the ...

Hanging is one of the most frequent methods for suicides among young males. This report presents two cases of suicide by hanging on pylons carrying high-voltage power lines. The male victims suffered electrocution while committing suicide. Electrocution was the cause of death in both cases, however in one case blunt ...

Described here is a case of suicide with the use of a chainsaw. A female suffering from schizophrenia committed suicide by an ingenious use of a chainsaw that resulted in the transection of her cervical spine and spinal cord. The findings of the resulting investigation are described and the mechanism ...

BACKGROUND: The presence of oxygen is necessary for normal wound healing. Oxygen has been given as a therapeutic modality to assist and speed wound healing. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to summarize the role of oxygen in wound healing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature review of clinical and basic science studies ...

It has been estimated that women involved in street prostitution are 60 to 100 times more likely to be murdered than are nonprostitute females. In addition, homicides of prostitutes are notoriously difficult to investigate and, as such, many cases remain unsolved. Despite this large risk factor, little literature exists on ...

OBJECTIVE: To highlight issues relating to suicide coding that have an impact on the final reported mortality data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. METHOD: This paper presents an outline of the way in which the official Australian suicide data is captured and coded and highlights issues relating to the ...

Unpleasant odor is a frequent and distressing concern of persons who have wounds, as well as their family members and caregivers. In some instances, standard nursing interventions such as increasing the frequency of dressing changes will not be sufficient to address wound malodor. A review of the literature to summarize ...

Uncompleted suicide attempts are a significant cause of morbidity, which in catastrophic cases can be both medically and ethically challenging to manage. We discuss the case of a 63-year-old man who survived a suicide attempt by venlafaxine (Effexor) overdose, causing an intracranial hemorrhage and leaving him in an apparently awake ...

Suicide attempts and completions by individuals while naked remain unexplored, both by clinicians and in the professional literature. Nakedness at the time of the incident conveys important information about an individual's mental state. Motivations for attempting or completing suicide while naked are discussed. Nakedness during a suicide attempt is presumptive ...

The neuropathological correlates of suicide in older persons have received little research attention. Our recent study of elderly suicide victims from an Australian forensic medicine department (n = 143), unlike a previous case-control study, did not find an increased prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in older persons who committed suicide ...

A retrospective review of 406 suicidal gunshot wounds to the head, investigated at the Medico-Legal Laboratory of Pretoria, between 1997 and 2000 was performed. Fifty-seven percent of fatal suicidal firearm injury to the head occurred in the 21- to 40-year age range in both male and female victims. Eighty-two percent ...

Differentiating the injuries exclusively due to falls from a height is difficult if no proper history is provided. Some clinical studies and case reports have been published on the subject, but an autopsy-based approach to the subject is missing in the literature of recent decades. A retrospective study was carried ...

Firearm-related injuries are a major problem worldwide and one of the central issues in forensic pathology. An atypical appearance of a gunshot wound can create surgical or medico-legal diagnostic problems. We report a case of a homicidal shotgun fatality with an unusual trajectory of pellets in the body. Two large ...

A fatality due to the intravenous self-injection of Ketorolac (Toradol) is reported. Ketorolac is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with marked analgesic activity. There is limited information of fatalities attributed to ketorolac toxicity. Here we report the case of a 53-year-old woman with a medical history of depression that was ...

The retrospective study of a consecutive autopsy series of 1100 elderly subjects (mean age 78.3 +/- 6.8 SD years), revealed sporadic cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) in 50.0% and in 95.7% of autopsy-confirmed cases of Alzheimer disease (AD). Apolipoprotein (APOE) epsilon 3/4 and epsilon 4/4 were significantly more frequent in AD ...

Autopsy cases involving individuals retaining radioactive substances are fortunately rare, but when they occur they can impose significant radiation safety and legal requirements. This review aims to improve the understanding of these issues so that appropriate precautions are implemented when necessary. This review describes the properties of ionizing radiations, natural ...

In cases of ligature strangulation, the importance of distinguishing self-inflicted death from homicide is crucial. This entails objective scene investigation, autopsy and anamnesis in order to elucidate the manner of death correctly. The authors report a case of unplanned complex suicide by means of self-strangulation and multiple sharp force injury. ...

Suspicion of neonaticide often leads to a request for a forensic autopsy. In that setting, it is important to correlate autopsy findings with the history given by the mother. So far, caput succedaneum has not raised interest in forensic pathology. A caput succedaneum is a haemorrhagic oedema involving the skin ...

The risk of suicide is significantly increased in schizophrenics; it is estimated that 10-13% of individuals suffering from schizophrenia commit suicide. Schizophrenia is marked by psychotic exacerbations and remissions, with persistent deterioration in baseline functioning with each relapse. We present a 10-year (1993-2002) retrospective review of Medical Examiners' cases of ...

There is little literature on a possible link between the use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and the occurrence of suicidal ideation. Nevertheless, its occurrence needs to be promptly recognized because it may trigger suicidal attempts. We retrospectively evaluated a case registry of 517 patients taking levetiracetam (LEV) for suicidal ideation, ...

The Dutch case of Brongersma presents novel challenges to the definition and evaluation of voluntary euthanasia since it involved a doctor assisting the suicide of an individual who was (merely?) 'tired of life'. Legal officials had called on the courts to 'set a principled boundary', excluding such cases from the ...

Paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA) and paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) are methoxylated phenylethylamine derivatives that have been banned in Taiwan since December 2005. The case history and pathological and toxicological findings of eight recent PMMA fatalities were investigated. All specimens from these cases were initially identified by an AxSYM fluorescence polarization immunoassay screening test for ...

The aim of this study is to present the characteristics of gunshot suicides by highlighting the ones with multiple entrance wounds. The criminal investigation reports of suicides (n=318) during the period 1991-2000, in the central judicial district of Eskisehir were investigated. 20.4% of all suicide cases (n=65) used firearms. Firearm ...

Helium is an inert gas that among other things is used medically to alleviate the symptoms of airway obstruction, as part of a diving mix in deep-sea diving or as balloon gas. In recent years the so-called right-to-die literature has suggested suffocation with inhaled helium as an effective and peaceful ...

Clostridium novyi is a Gram-positive anaerobe, which is commonly a pathogen of domestic and wild animals. Disease in humans typically presents as myonecrosis. C. novyi has not previously been reported as a cause of myocarditis. We report a fatal case with infection of the myocardium by C. novyi type B.

In forensic practice, decapitated bodies are predominantly associated with decapitation by wheels of trains or with postmortem dismemberment following homicide. In the suicidal context, decapitation accounts for less than 1% of total suicide. Apart from decapitation by trains, other encountered methods involve suicidal hanging and vehicle-assisted ligature suicide. Reported here ...

Wound healing is a complex pathway that is energy dependent. Nonhealing wounds frequently require the use of physical modalities to achieve healing. There is much debate over which treatment modality to use, with varying clinical results in the literature. This review paper describes a common biochemical pathway that helps the ...

We report the case of a 49-year-old male who took an overdose of 1650 mg of clopidogrel with suicidal intent. The patient developed abnormalities of platelet aggregation, but never developed symptoms. Clopidogrel is a commonly prescribed drug. Reports of overdose of clopidogrel were very rarely reported in the literature.