Forensic medicine experts' opinion on medico-legal autopsies in hospital deaths: a questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVE: Medico-legal autopsy is conducted routinely in some countries and selectively in others in hospital deaths. This study was conducted to evaluate the views of the forensic medicine experts regarding this matter. METHODS: A questionnaire pro forma was sent to sixty-five forensic medicine experts practicing in different medical institutions all around India. Designations and experiences of the participants were noted by requests in the same questionnaire. Their specific experience in conducting medico-legal autopsy in hospital deaths was also requested for. Responses were charted in frequency distribution tables and analyzed using SPSS, version 17.0. RESULTS: One-third of the participants felt that a medico-legal autopsy was necessary in all the hospital death cases as defined in the present study. Ten percent of the participants opined that a medico-legal autopsy was unnecessary in hospital deaths. The majority of the experts mentioned finding the cause of death, followed by finding the manner of death and collecting the evidentiary materials, as the reasons for medico-legal autopsy in hospital deaths. Twenty percent of the participants felt that internal findings at autopsy poorly matched with the case records. All the experts agreed that external autopsy findings matched with the hospital case records. Nearly two-third of the participants felt that it was difficult in some cases to interpret the autopsy findings without case records from the hospital where the deceased was treated. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the exercise of carrying out medico-legal autopsy routinely in every hospital death as evident in the Indian framework is often unnecessary as per the experts' opinion. Autopsy findings in hospital deaths often correlate with hospital case records.

An unusual case of self-strangulation by ligature.

Self-strangulation is an uncommon method of suicide. We report an unusual case of self-strangulation where the body was found in an open area with a ligature around neck and another around the feet. The case was initially taken up as homicide. The manner was determined as suicide later based on detailed investigations. The deceased had used two ligatures tied to heavy stones, one secured around the feet and the other around the neck to strangulate him. The case is reported for its rarity and the unusual method adopted by the victim to commit suicide by self-strangulation in an open area. In cases where it is difficult to reach a definitive conclusion as to manner of death, it is of utmost importance that a systematic death scene investigation, a meticulous post mortem examination and an intelligent interpretation of the findings is carried out.

The Mangalore aircrash of 22 May 2010: practical problems related to identification of the dead in a populous developing country.

It was a sad and emotional moment for the citizens of Mangalore, India when the "Dubai to Mangalore" Air India Express Boeing 737-800 flight IX-812 crashed at the Mangalore International Airport on 22 May 2010, killing 158 people on board. Identification of the victims was difficult as most of the bodies were charred beyond easy recognition. The practical problems faced by the legal authorities in identifying the charred victims in a populous and developing country like India are discussed in this paper.

Spoken language can have its impact on the respiratory passage.

Spoken language, due its chronic impact, could be looked upon as one of the factors for its role, either in prevention or causation of respiratory illnesses. There will be variations in articulatory-aerodynamics and respiratory system dynamics among the spoken languages. Geographic variation of disease patterns and uncertain etiologies of some respiratory illnesses, which occur due to insult to the mucosal barrier or the defense mechanism of the respiratory passage, may be explained by the hypothesis of unhealthy language. Habituation to a particular spoken language could mask the symptoms of phonotrauma. Other respiratory illnesses could initiate from the phonotrauma by spoken language. There exist lacunae in the research of languages. Finding out the healthy language could mean relative freedom from respiratory illnesses. Healthy spoken language could relieve the stress on vocal cords and improve the defense mechanism of the respiratory passage.