The American journal of forensic medicine and pathology
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Nonpenetrating cardiac injuries due to direct precordial blunt impacts are a commonly encountered phenomenon in medicolegal offices. These injuries vary from contusions to valvular lacerations, or papillary muscle rupture to coronary arterial injury with resulting infarction. ⋯ We describe four case reports of this entity. The cases were collected over a 5-year period (1978-1983) from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office in Detroit, Michigan.
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Food asphyxiation in infants/children follows a different pattern from the adult "cafe coronary." In the absence of ethanol intoxication, infants/children are prone to mishandling nonfriable, firm, slippery foods/objects with a rounded contour. The Dade County Medical Examiner's files were searched from 1956 to mid-1983 for accidental pediatric choking deaths. Seventeen food and six foreign body asphyxiations were found. ⋯ The choking event was recognized by nearby adults in most instances. Risk factors include the availability of riskful foods/objects, natural diseases with difficulty feeding, poor eating habits, and uneducated or ignorant parents/others at the scene. Although public education, package labeling, and changes in food/object design may be appropriate, the ubiquituous risk foods and small foreign objects will, on occasion, escape the eye of even the most watchful parent.
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Am J Forensic Med Pathol · Mar 1983
Historical ArticleMedicolegal investigation in New York City. History and activities 1918-1978.
Medicolegal investigation in America can truly be said to have begun in an organized manner in 1918. The Massachusetts medical examiner system, which began in 1877, never developed with the central control and the completeness that characterizes the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, nor did it influence the spread of this form of medicolegal investigation. An overview of the period before the establishment of the New York Office in 1918 and early experiences in coroner's investigation in New York is presented. ⋯ Milestones in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City are listed, as are chronological details of major cases and problems. Several comparative figures of the workload and frequency of various types of death are also included. A relationship of deaths to different life-styles is noted.
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Am J Forensic Med Pathol · Mar 1982
Biography Historical ArticleLeone Lattes: Italy's pioneer in forensic serology.