Medicine, science, and the law
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Homicidal burning of married women in India is a major concern for the Government, law-enforcing authorities, the judiciary, the police and medico-legal experts all over the country who are associated with dowry disputes. Dowry death, a heinous crime, is gradually engulfing and polluting the entire society. Sections 304(B) and 498(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) have been introduced and Sections 174 Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) and 176 Cr PC have been modified but, instead of deterring dowry deaths, the occurrences are increasing day by day and the number of cases coming for post-mortem examination is rising. ⋯ Most victims died at the time of the incident, or within the subsequent 24 hours, due to hypovolumeic shock. The education status in 70.21% cases was either illiterate or under matriculation. More stringent laws and female independence both mentally and economically will reduce the homicidal burns in young brides.
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Anatomic trauma scoring systems are fundamental to trauma research. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and its derivative, the Injury Severity Score (ISS), are the most frequently used scales. ⋯ Fifty-eight cases (14.5%) were assigned an ISS value of <25; 244 (61%) cases were valued between 25-49; 38 cases (9.5%) were valued between 50-74 and 60 (15%) cases had a value of 75. On analysis of medical care, in cases with ISS<50, about 96% of the victims did not receive optimal care quickly enough with a lack of pre-hospital resuscitation measures and lengthy transportation time to hospital being of major importance.
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The burn wound healing process, which is reviewed in this paper, has features that differ from the healing of incised cutaneous wounds. This study used immunohistochemical staining and cell counting to examine the inflammatory cell response in biopsy samples of burn wounds from live human subjects obtained at six hours until 23 days after injury in order to determine how the age of a burn could be estimated. Acute inflammatory cells predominated in samples taken six hours to two days after injury. However, neutrophils were often minimal in early samples or could be present late. Elevated numbers of macrophages tended to be encountered from days 2 to 20, but it was not uncommon to observe a minimal or absent macrophage response. Unexpectedly, there was no trend in the number of lymphocytes. A small study was also made of burn wound samples that had been obtained at post-mortem examination of subjects that died in a fire or up to 77 days after injury from fire. This revealed a similar trend of neutrophil and macrophage accumulation. Additionally, it appeared that an increase in the number of lymphocytes occurred late, from 35 days. ⋯ If neutrophils predominate, the wound is probably less than a couple of days old. When macrophages are abundant the wound is probably a few days to weeks old. However, as expected from the review of the literature, the inflammatory cell infiltrate may be low or absent in burn wounds, which can render determination of the age of burn wounds difficult.
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Data on suicides, attempted suicides and other self-harming behaviours that occurred in Italian prisons from 1990 to 2002 was studied on official records, as documented by the Ministry of Justice. Over the study interval, completed suicide rates in Italian prisons were constantly about ten times higher than among the general population, but over time they did not increase significantly despite nearly a doubling in the absolute number of inmates. ⋯ Self-injuring acts without the intent to die involve about one in every ten individuals, with foreigners (non-EU citizens mostly) being twice as likely to self-harm than residents. A better identification of the people suffering from mental disorders and a reduction in prison overcrowding are two key issues that need to be implemented to reduce the impact of suicide and self-harming behaviours among convicts.