[Case report of accidental stab wound to the heart].
A 33 year-old Polish field-worker was found by his colleagues kneeling in front of his trailer, with a bloody stab wound in the heart region. In spite of prompt surgical intervention, the man died from his injury a few hours later. Upon examination of the dead man's trailer a blood-smeared vegetable-knife was found in the sink, and on the floor, a pullover with a slit-like cut. On the wall hung a jacket on a hook with a cut in the inner surface of the left breast pocket but not in the outside layer. The examination of the clothes, the autopsy and a reconstruction of the sequence of events led to the following conclusion: The knife had been placed into the breast pocket of the jacket with the tip facing downwards. As the man put down a sack of potatoes, the knife hooked into a pre-existing gap in the sack and was driven into the chest cavity by the pressure weight of the heavy sack.
Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Universität Freiburg.
M G
MG
Perdekamp
M
M
Bohnert
S
S
Pollak
D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000328:Adult; D006335:Heart Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000293:injuries / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014951:Wounds, Stab / Q000473:pathology*