Archiwum Medycyny Sadowej i Kryminologii最新文献

One of the main problems encountered in medico-legal assessment of injuries suffered as a result of falling from a height is the discrimination between the effects of accidental and suicidal falls. The aim of the study was to verify the prevalence of injuries involving different regions of the osteoarticular system in groups of victims of attempted suicide and fatal accidents according to the method proposed by Teh et al. The study material consisted of the findings of extended post-mortem examinations of 114 victims of falls from a height, which were conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine in Lublin. The post-mortem results were compared with the data found in corresponding prosecutorial case files. The results of the study indicate a higher prevalence of osteoarticular injuries within the pelvis and lower limbs in the group of suicide victims, which correlates with the results reported by Teh et al. An analysis of injuries in different body regions in accordance with the reported method can be useful in determining the circumstances of falling from a height.

The human body is often used for illegal drug trafficking around the world. This may be done by concealing the drugs inside the body, so-called "body packing". This can lead to life-threatening conditions, mainly by leakage of the illegal substances in lethal amounts into the circulation system, which may cause fatal consequences due to acute drug overdose. Most of these cases present as sudden unexpected deaths. However, we present herein a case in which the death of an unidentified victim, which was notified as a case of seawater drowning in a non-suspicious manner, but later proved to be the death of a body packer as a result of drowning due to a morphine overdose. This case highlights the importance of investigating deaths even in unidentified bodies and the different presentations of fatal consequences of a body packer, which previously have not been described in literature.

The aim of the study is to describe practical application of criteria for whiplash injury evaluation based on a biomechanical simulation of human movement. The analysis of forces applied to the passenger's body in an accident estimated using such a simulation can serve as additional verification of opinions formulated by forensic experts in cases involving whiplash injuries. The study discusses the method of biomechanical simulation using the PC-Crash software as well as a neck injury criterion (NIC) and export of simulation results to determine NIC values. The above-mentioned method is to estimate the probability of whiplash injuries in a given case based on technical parameters of the crash. Such methods are complementary to forensic examinations and should be routinely included in comprehensive forensic expert opinions and technical reconstructions of traffic incidents. This additional method of analyzing the likelihood of whiplash injuries may serve as a basis for formulating conclusions in opinions implying a higher likelihood.

The present report is a follow-up to our previous studies on the determination of the height of fatal falls, and it is focused on the verification of the method developed by Lau et al. The study group was extended to a total of 109 individuals, and the height of fall of each victim was calculated using the mathematical formula put forward by Lau et al. The heights of falls calculated with the formula referred to above were significantly different (in 72.5% of cases) from the actual heights, which points to limited reliability of the method under evaluation.