Profile of unnatural deaths in a teaching hospital of West Bengal, India

Background: Enquiry into unnatural deaths with all its manners being, suicidal, accidental or homicidal depends on circumstantial evidences for acceptable judgment in court of law. Objectives were to study socio-demographic characteristics of the study and to find out influencing factors, if any, behind these sudden, suspicious, undesirable deaths.Methods: A record-based, descriptive study with cross-sectional design was conducted for first six months of 2017 in NRS medical college hospital among 1603 unnatural deaths undergone police inquest. Besides the records obtained from medical record section, findings were corroborated from mortuary. Data were analyzed in SPSS 22.0 and Epi Info 7.0.Results: Mean age of the deceased was 37.18±17.42 years. Regarding cause of injury, more than 1/3rd (36.6%) was attributed to poisoning, followed by burn injury (24.8%), road traffic accidents (22.8%), fall from height (6.9%) and others the rest. Majority (68.3%) died within twenty hours of reaching the health care facility. More than half of the deceased committed suicide followed by accident and suicide the least. Binary logistic regression revealed, unnatural deaths inflicted by selves or others, i.e. suicide or homicide respectively, had statistically significant (p<0.05) association to productive age, urban residence, burn and RTA, longer survival and conservative nature of management.Conclusions: As suicide was found to comprise lion share of unnatural deaths, development and implementation of addressing the issue at all the levels, starting from individual to community is the need of the hour.

A Study of Epidemiological Profile of Dowry Death Victims in Aligarh

Background: Dowry death is considered as one of the categories of most heinous crime in all the societies against the women in India. It is one of the important causes for the abetment of suicide and murder Methods: This retrospective study was done by Department of Forensic Medicine, J.N Medical College & Hospital in collaboration with district mortuary Aligarh during the period of 2 years from 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015. Results: Amongst Out of 1015 female victims, 415 females died within 7 years of marriage unrelated to dowry and 52 victims died in relation or with demand due to the dowry. Most of the deaths occurred in the age group 18-25 years (65.53%). Maximum number of death occurred within first 3 years of marriage in 37 (71.15%) cases. Majority of married female victims were Hindu 39 (75.00%) and used to live in the rural areas (69.23%) belonging to joint family 32 (61.53%). Burn was leading cause of death in 18(34.62%) cases followed by hanging 16 (30.77%). So the strict laws and proper investigation is the need of hour to save our sisters and daughter from the devil of Dowry.

Profile of unnatural deaths in Bhuj (Gujarat): A retrospective study.

Background and Objectives: After the earthquake in Bhuj, Gujarat, there is great development in this region. At the same time the Unnatural deaths are also increased. We have studied the pattern of unnatural deaths and tried to find out the various causes of death according to the cause of death. We also suggested the probable reasons and remedies for this. Method: The paper presents the retrospective study of 1110 post-mortem cases in New G.K. General Hospital, Bhuj during the span of three years (1st January 2008 to 31st December 2010). Results: We concluded that out of total 1110 cases of post-mortems total 1021(91.99%) cases were found of unnatural deaths. We found the pattern of unnatural deaths and among all unnatural deaths; the commonest cause was burns (358 cases, 35.25%). Rest of cases was of head injury, poisoning, regional injury, drowning, hanging, etc in descending order. We also found that majority of victims were males, young adults (21-30 years) and from rural areas. Conclusion: Majority of male deaths were due to injuries, probably accidental in nature and majority of females deaths were due to burns. We have also shown the probable reasons and future plans for this.

Bathing Related Death in Toyama Prefecture / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

  In last year, 141 people in Toyama prefecture were dead in bath room. Male was 64, and female was 77. Mean age was 75.3±13.6. From the summary of the record of postmortem examination, bathing related death were more frequently occur in cold season. In addition, the death more frequently may occur in night, however not a few people was also dead in morning. The rate of alcohol intake in them was not significant. Past history of hypertension, cardiac disease, cerebrovascular disease may be risk factor of bathing related death, however, there were not a few people with obvious past history of intrinsic disease. About in half of the cases, drowning may be final cause of death in police examination. Unfortunately, no autopsy performed to them in a year, and the poor autopsy rate may be a significant hazard of detail examination for preventing the bathing related death.

Suicide - the magnitude of the problem.

Suicide is the second commonest manner of unnatural death flanked by accident and homicide. Suicide is by no means a simple issue, for it hinges on a spectrum of ethical, legal, sociological and psychological problems and it is yet to be offered an unequivocal and satisfactory answer to all the questions raised by this perplexing phenomenon. In an attempt to analyse the magnitude of the problem of suicide, this paper provides a comprehensive data encompassing the prevailing scenario of suicide, investigation of suicide as viewed by different workers and the importance of differentiation between accident, homicide and suicide The presentation is concluded by emphasizing the advantages of psychological autopsy in suicide investigation.

Para suicide: An approach to the profile of victims.

Suicide is the second commonest manner of unnatural death flanked by accident and homicide. Unlike suicide which terminates the human life forever, its counterpart, ‘Para suicide’ paralysis the human life either temporarily or permanently. Para suicide could not be taken as a lighter entity in the modern times, for it may prove as equally dangerous as suicide itself and sometimes perhaps more than that. The present study is an analysis of the spectrum of Para suicide in the terms of various sociodemographic / epidemiological features. The study presents the profile of suicide attempters, who reported / were brought to the Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, Coastal Karnataka, South India, over a span of twelve months with an alleged history of attempted suicide. The study sample comprised of 52 subjects who survived the attempt of suicide. Men (56%) considered as more vulnerable than women. Urbanites (80%) outnumbered the rural dwellers (20%). Thirty six percent of the attempters were in their third decade of life. Fifty six percent of the victims had had their education up to the Secondary School. Manual laborers (23%) were most vulnerable when compared to the skilled laborers and professionals (4% each). Ninety four percent of the subjects were the followers of Hindu religion. Married individuals (52%) and those from lower middle class sector (70%) attempted suicide more often. Presentation is concluded by the suggestion of probable preventive measures.

About reform of autopsy system: focus into the limited autopsy / 대한법의학회지

The autopsy system in Korea is based on the Corpse Autopsy and Preservation Law which Articles 2 didn 't limit medical professors and medical examiners to perform autopsy. But according to the Medical practitioners Law Article 18, only a practicing physician can issue the certificate for postmortem inspec-tion. If an unnatural death is suspected, the postmortem investigation and autopsy should be performed according to the order of Criminal Procedure Code Article 222. The limited role of postmortem investi-gation in unnatural death and respective bodies of postmortem inspection and autopsy, which would cause the overflow of criminal autopsy. The detailed guide-line of unnatural death, should-be verified death cases, practical use of postmortem inspection including the blood and tissue sampling etc, unifica-tion of legislations regarding to autopsy system, the specific warrant of autopsy, which empowers the limited and full autopsy individually would be help to improve that distortion.

The Recent Status and The Point at Issue of Postmortem Investigation in Jeju / 대한법의학회지

To know recent status and the point at issue of postmortem investigation in Jeju, the southernmost island in Korea has short history of forensic practice, we analyzed unnatural deaths investigated in Jeju during the five years of 1988 through 2002 inclusively. Of the total number of unnatural deaths (1, 118), 349 of the deceased (31.2%) were studied by autopsy in this period. Advisably, the annual autopsy rate was increased gradually with an increase of unnatural deaths. Drowning occupied large proportion (25.6%) of unnatural deaths. A sudden increase of thermal injury and intoxication in 2002 has attracted attention. Postmortem investigation conducted by prosecutor without participation of expert witness involves a lot of risk and that is one of the current nationwide issue as well as in Jeju. In conclusion, the role of forensic specialist in scene investigation and necessity of administrative support for improvement of medicolegal investigation system in Jeju. is emphasized.