PARTHA BHATTACHARYA Definition of Death Medically and scientifically

PARTHA BHATTACHARYA

Definition of Death: Medically and scientifically, death is not an event, it is a process. [ref. Simpson’s Forensic Medicine Twelfth Edition] What Law says? NO LEGAL DEFINITION OF DEATH EXISTS!!! Sec 46 IPC: The word "death" denotes the death of a human being unless the contrary appears from the context. Registration of birth and death Act Sec 2(b) : Defines death as permanent disappearance of all evidence of life at any time after live-birth has taken place.

MANNER OF DEATH HOMICIDAL ACCIDENTAL SUICIDAL

COMPRESSION OF WIND PIPE HANGING STRANGULATOIN LIGATURE STRANGULATION THROTTLING MUGGING MECHANICAL FIXATION OF CHEST TRAUMATIC ASPHYXIA GARROTTING BANSDOLA VIOLENT ASPHYXIAL DEATHS SUBMERSION OF MOUTH & NOSTRILS IN FLUIDOF AIR EXCLUSION FROM LUNGS NECK TWISTING OR COMPRESSION OF TRACHEA PRESSURE ON CAROTID VESSEL OR ON TRACHEA SMOTHERING DROWNING SUFFOCATION GAGGING CHOKING POSTURAL OR POSITIONAL ASPHYXIA OVERLAYING BURKING SEXUAL OR AUTOEROTIC ASPHYXIA

HANGING Death by suspending the body with a ligature round the neck, constricting force being the weight of the body.

HANGING

TYPES OF HANGING A) On degree of suspension: (i) Complete hanging(body fully suspended) (ii)Partial Hanging (not fully suspended) almost always suicidal B) On position of knot : (i) Typical handing (ii) Atypical handing

BLINDNESS OR AGE NO BAR TO HANGING

MANNER OF DEATH IN HANGING Most informative: crime scene investigation (‘PO’ visit) DECIDES SUICIDAL/ACCIDENTAL/HOMICIDAL consider -violence/struggle signs -Clothing/apparels -bodily injury

STRANGULATION Violent form of asphyxia resulting from constriction the neck by means of a ligature or by other means without suspending the body.

A 21 -year-old male. Sexual asphyxia. Placed towel between noose and skin.

LIGATURE STRANGULATION

SIGNS-LIGATURE STRANGULATION

LIGATURE STRANGULATION v Oblique ligature mark like hanging? v Ligature mark obliterates in decomposition? v Nail scratch mark always indicate strangulation? v Multiple turn of ligature mark always indicate strangulation? v. Strangulation- suicidal ? Accidental?

PSEUDO STRANGULATION – Bodies of infants & children in cold storage – Short-necked people – Obese people – Decomposition in a tightly clothed body

MANNUAL STRANGULATION COMPRESSION OF NECK BY HUMAN HANDS – OCCLUSION TO CAROTIDS

MEDICOLEGAL ASPECTS – MANUAL STRANGULATION Suicidal throttling Not possible ? Accidental throttling pressure at the carotid sinus bradycardia, & Hypotension Homicidal throttling Victims – infants, child or a woman Healthy adults – only if intoxicated or stunned by a sudden attack Most common mode of infanticide

Suffocation Death from the exclusion of air from the lungs by means other than compression of the neck. TYPES: • Smothering • Choking • Pressure on the chest • Inhalation of irrespirable gases

Drowning Types: 1. 2. 3. 4. Wet Drowning Dry Drowning Secondary Drowning Immersion Syndrome

POST MORTEM APPEARENCES MOST DIFFICULT TO PROVE IF NOT EXAMINED FRESH 1. Fine white lathery froth or foam 2. Cadaveric spasm-weeds, vegetations 3. Cutis anserine or goose skin 4. Voluminous lung with rib indentation 5. Water/mud/sand in trachea

CIRCUMSTANCES OF DROWNING v Died before falling into water? v Onset of disease while in water? v Injured first & thrown into water later? v Injured while in water? v. Body found far away from place of drowning? MANNER OF DEATH