Archiwum medycyny sa̧dowej i kryminologii
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Oct 2003
Case Reports[Suicidal single intraoral shooting by a shotgun--risk of misinterpretation at the crime scene].
The authors presented two cases of suicidal single intraoral shooting by a shotgun. The first case relates to a victim found near the peak of Swinica in the Tatra mountains. When the circumstances could have suggested fatal fall from a height and minute, insignificant external injuries were found, the pistol found at the scene has been the most important indicator leading to the actual cause of death. ⋯ A self-made weapon was previously removed and hidden from the scene by a relative of the victim. Before regular forensic autopsy X-ray examination was conducted which revealed multiple intracranial foreign bodies of a shape of a shot. After the results of the autopsy the relative of the deceased indicated the location of the weapon.
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A case of suicide with the use of a primitive self-made firearm, constructed with a steel tube was presented. Victim standing on a stool, with hanging loop around neck, shot himself to mouth with fourteen steel balls. At this moment the weapon tore apart wounding hand of the victim.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Apr 2003
Review[Sobriety testing in case of lack of cooperation of the examined person--the legal basis of the physician's activities].
The legal aspect of blood sample taking for alcohol concentration from suspicious, uncooperative persons is described in this paper. The Polish law allows for a possibility to take blood samples for alcohol concentration from suspects only by a physician or another skilled medical worker and only when consent is given to the medical procedure. ⋯ Taking blood samples is the medical worker' obligation in accordance with the law. The physician can refuse to do this only when the procedure threatens the life or health of the suspect.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Apr 2003
[Routine examination of cervical spinal cord and spinal column during forensic autopsies].
Examination of the cervical spinal cord is a rare additional autopsy technique applied in forensic autopsies. Injuries of the neck region are fatal in a considerable number of cases. However, such technique is neglected especially while a different cause of death is found. ⋯ There were about 40% gross anatomy and about 46% microscopic (blood suffusions) changes giving evidence of trauma of that region in groups of victims of traffic accidents. Techniques of examination of the cervical spinal cord and spinal column with the addition of microscopy in selected cases can prove the cause and mechanism of death. While neglected, especially in obscure autopsy cases, could give the reason that possible medical malpractice occurred.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2003
[Opinions on cases referring to: estimation of ability to participate in legal proceedings, estimation of ability to stay in conditions of imprisonment in the material of the Forensic Medicine Department, Silesian School of Medicine in Katowice in the years 1997-2002].
The legal and medical opinions referring to conditions of health of the participants of penal procedures: their ability to take part in legal proceedings, their ability to stay in conditions of imprisonment, are more and more common as an advisory practice of the Forensic Medicine Department in Katowice. It concerns the people connected with so called delinquency organized and people involved with economic crime. ⋯ The assumptions dating from 1997-2002, issued by the Department, were analyzed making allowances for age, sex, the kind of somatic diseases and the commissioning organs. Referring to obligatory regulations of the law, the authors introduce advisory principles accepted by the Forensic Medicine Department in Katowice in the above mentioned cases and attempt to estimate the divergence between judicial medicine experts with clinical specialties and forensic medicine experts.