JAFM-33-2, April-June, 2011 [PDF] - forensic medicine

J Indian Acad Forensic Med. April-June 2011, Vol. 33, No. 2 ISSN 0971-0973Case ReportMeticulous Examination of Body Pays….*Hitesh Chawla, ** Basant Lal Sirohiwal, *** P.K. PaliwalAbstractOwing to climatic conditions in tropical countries like ours, decomposition of bodies takes placerapidly, especially in hot and rainy seasons. It is very essential to make as thorough an examination aspracticable, even in decomposed bodies, in order to find out the cause of death and manner of death,especially in a case where there is suspicion of foul play. When a dead body is recovered from sewerdrainage in the stage of decomposition, the police are in dilemma about its cause of death and manner ofdeath and the relatives are also having speculations about the cause of death of their near and dearones. The case presented in this paper illustrates the importance of a thorough post-mortem examinationand not just relying on the information furnished by the police. The authors stress that a thorough andmeticulous examination of the body is the need of hour and if done meticulously, it pays.Key Words: Decomposition, Firearm Injuries, Death, Post-mortemIntroduction:Decomposition is not a hindrance inconducting autopsy and decomposition isusually found in country like ours where multipleclimatic variations are there. In forensic workdecomposed bodies are common placeespecially in warm climates. Though the value ofautopsy is progressively reduced as the state ofputrefaction advances, no shortcuts should betaken by the pathologist merely because ofunpleasant nature of examination. [1]Sometimes even the police officer at theplace of occurrence of incidence may not touchthe dead body and scrutinize it for any marks ofviolence but may depend on the illiteratevillagers present at the inquest, who may havesome motive in concealing the real facts. [2] Indecomposition there is peeling of epidermis, lossof hair from the skin, also the margins of woundmay become ragged due to disintegration of thetissues at the margins. [3] The importance ofthorough post mortem examination has alreadybeen emphasized even when there is a longpost mortem interval between death and postmortem examination. [4]In the case presented here, adecomposed body was brought for examinationwhich was having sharp injuries over the bodyas per police papers, while meticulousexamination reveals something else.Corresponding Author:*Resident, Deptt. of Forensic MedicinePt. B. D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak, HaryanaE-mail: drhiteshchawla@rediffmail.com,** Professor, *** Sr. Prof. & HeadCase Report:A decomposed body was referred in theDepartment of Forensic Medicine, PGIMSRohtak, which was recovered from sewerdrainage with a history that person was missingfor a period of three days. The father ofdeceased complained to police that his son hada quarrel with someone who threatened to killhim. Later on when the dead body was found insewer drain, father of deceased suspected thathis son has been killed by some sharp edgedweapon. As per police papers the body hadsharp cut injuries over the body. The postmortemexamination on the dead body wascarried out in the Department of ForensicMedicine. The dead body was of a young maleindividual aged 22 years.On general examination of the body, thebody was in a stage of decomposition withbloating of facial features, eyeballs softened andprotruding out, tip of tongue protruding out,peeling of epidermis etc. (Fig. 1)On further examination of body seeingthe injuries externally, it was suspected that theinjury may be likely due to firearm, so the x-rayexamination of body was conducted beforedoing the post-mortem which revealed thefirearm injuries (Fig. 2).On examination following injuries were foundover the body:1. A firearm entry wound of size 1×1 cmsituated over left side of forehead, 2 cmaway from midline, 4 cm above eyebrow and173 cm above left heel. The skin wasmissing for an area of 7×6 cm around that182