Journal of clinical forensic medicine
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J Clin Forensic Med · Oct 2004
Obstetric and gynecologic malpractice in Turkey: incidence, impact, causes and prevention.
The Forensic Medicine Association was established in Turkey by law number 2659 for the purpose of providing expertise in legal cases. In this study the opinions given by the lawcourts and public defenders in the Forensic Medicine Association's First, Second, Third, and Fifth Specialization Divisions between the years 1990 and 2000 (approximately 680,000 files) were examined retrospectively. It was determined from these that there were 636 cases of medical malpractice. ⋯ In 31% (n=33) of the 107 cases fault was found; all of the cases where medical malpractice was found were in the area of obstetrics and none of the cases related to gynecology were found to have an element of error. Cases that had an element of error were evaluated from the aspect of profession of the health care personnel at fault, areas of fault, places where fault occurred, situations that resulted in death, cause of death, whether or not an autopsy was done, injury that resulted from fault, intervention that was done, and obstetric and gynecologic risk factors that set the stage for claims. Care standards and breach of standards were examined.
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J Clin Forensic Med · Oct 2004
Case ReportsEffect of combined exposure to carbon monoxide and cyanides in selected forensic cases.
Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas with potentially lethal action, which forms as a result of incomplete combustion in conditions where there is a lack of oxygen and which, therefore, is present in varying percentages in environments where fire develops. In addition to carbon monoxide, other factors such as cyanide may contribute or might actually be the primary cause of a subject's demise. ⋯ For this reason it is in the interest of forensic medicine to study all lethal cases of exposure to toxic substances originating from fires of various types of materials, in order to determine information regarding kinetic action and the possible strengthening of the effect of the two substances. Two case studies are presented here, in which the results of the toxicological examinations are quite different, and the contributions of CO and HCN in a fire asphyxiation are considered.