A degloving foot injury in a traffic accident.
An unusual human remain found on a road became one key to reconstruct the traffic accident. A woman was found dead on a snow-covered road. Her left foot showed a large deficit of skin and underlying fat tissue. The detached skin and tissue were found into her left sock and shoe lying at a distance of 23 m from the body. There were multiple fractures on her back and occipital cranial bone. Severe injuries revealed in heart, liver, and brain. The neck remained intact. These findings suggested that her back has been strongly hit by the object with the flat surface, for example, the front side of a cab-over or truck, from behind at a high speed. Furthermore, the degloving injury in her left foot suggested that a vehicle ran over the foot which faced the vehicle. We reconstructed the accident as follows. Firstly the wheel of the vehicle ran over the victim's foot, and then, the victim turned away from the vehicle. Finally, the front side hit her twisted body from behind, resulting in a traumatic degloving injury.
Nishitani
Yoko
Y
Department of Legal Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South 1 West 17, Sapporo, Japan. nyoko@sapmed.ac.jp
Fujisawa
Hiroko
H
Hibino
Makoto
M
Kobaybashi
Kenichiro
K
Okazaki
Shunichiro
S
Imabayashi
Kiyomi
K
Matsumoto
Hiroshi
H
D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000673:Amputation, Traumatic / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D018409:Foot Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012867:Skin / Q000293:injuries*