A body recovered from the water does not necessarily imply that death was due to drowning. The diagnosis of drowning is discussed together with the significance of the "diatom" and biochemical tests.
A teenage male was admitted to a hospital in the United Kingdom following the ingestion of strychnine. The typical spasms of strychnine poisoning were observed and he died during the fourth convulsion. The post mortem findings are presented, and strychnine poisoning is discussed.
An adult male sustained a number of stab injuries and other injuries including a fatal stab injury to the neck. There was evidence of air embolism which was considered to be a major factor causing death. The discussion is in four parts. Part I is confined to the post mortem examination. Part II relates to the medico-legal aspects of the case. Part III is a general discussion on embolism and its medico-legal significance whilst Part IV is on the medico-legal aspects of air embolism.
The deliberate inhalation of solvents among children and adolescents "for kicks" is becoming more common in the West. It was generally regarded as a relatively harmless practice and consequently little attention had been paid to the isolation of the toxic agent from the variety of substances used. It is now well recognised that solvent abuse not only can result in sudden death but also cause pathological changes to the liver, kidney, brain, heart and lungs. A case of toluene associated death in Malaysia is discussed both from a medico-legal and pathological standpoint.
The finding of skeletal remains is a common happening and the forensic pathologist is frequently called upon to examine the remains. It is theoretically much better for the pathologist to examine the bones at the site before they are disturbed, but this rarely happens, the bones being recovered by the public, workmen or police and brought in a jumbled condition to the pathologist. Using a systematic process of elimination such as that suggested in this paper, the maximum information can be obtained. Even so, it is common for the bones never to be identified and even the length of time the person has been dead remains unknown, due to lack of corroborative information. However, only by repeated and careful examination of a number of skeletal remains, can the pathologist hope to gain any experience. Probably the most important thing to bear in mind is the danger of being too dogmatic, especially about the date of the remains and not to mislead the investigating authorities by over-optimistic opinions.
A 27-year old male sustained a 60 per cent TBSA burn with inhalation injury following a road traffic accident. He developed respiratory distress on day 3 postburn, and was intubated and ventilated. He was noted to have greenish aspirate from his trachea on day 17 of ventilation. He succumbed from sepsis and died on day 21 post injury. At post-mortem, a large tracheo-oesophageal fistula (TOF) was found at the level of the cuff of the nasotracheal tube.