title: Never say never. Negligible carboxyhemoglobin in the victim of a smoldering mattress fire.
abstract: For many years, a high blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration has been used as a criterion for determining that a victim of conflagration was alive in the fire. We report a case in which a man died from the combined effects of burns and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. He had a negligible blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration, but the environmental evidence and autopsy findings are indicative of life in the fire, which arose in a smoldering mattress. We conclude that uncritical, rigid adherence to the requirement that fire victims have high carboxyhemoglobin concentrations can be misleading.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism*; D005390:Fires; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin