Fatal thoracic impalement on postmortem imaging.
In the present paper, the authors describe a case of fatal thoracic impalement in a victim of a road traffic accident, by penetration of a metal handrail. The driver lost control of his car while overtaking three cars. Due to the force of the vehicle collision with a metal railing, the upper cross bar penetrated the front of the car and subsequently the driver was pierced by the center-pillar in the car. Death occurred at the scene of the accident. Postmortem, computed tomography, computed tomography angiography and a magnetic resonance tomography were performed and revealed severe heart destruction and hemorrhage as cause of death. The present case report shows that postmortem imaging might have value as a screening method to decide whether arising forensic questions can be answered just by imaging like in the presented case or if further examinations such as conventional autopsy are required.
Institute of Forensic Medicine, Center of Forensic Imaging and Virtopsy, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland. tanja.germerott@irm.unibe.ch
Tanja
T
Germerott
Patricia M
PM
Flach
Matthias
M
Furter
Garyfalia
G
Ampanozi
Thomas D
TD
Ruder
Michael J
MJ
Thali
D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D001344:Autopsy / Q000379:methods; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods; D049429:Forensic Pathology / Q000379:methods; D006491:Hemothorax / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic / Q000379:methods; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult