title: Complex suicide by ethanol intoxication and inhalation of fire fumes in an old lady: interdisciplinary elucidation including post-mortem analysis of congener alcohols.
abstract: An 88-year-old woman committed suicide by drinking a toxic amount of highly concentrated alcohol and setting two rooms of her flat on fire. As there was not enough oxygen, the fire went out, however. At autopsy, no thermal lesions were found on the body, but soot depositions in the airways and a COHb value of 14% pointed to the inhalation of fire fumes. The ethanol concentration in femoral blood was 6.62 per mille. The gastric mucosa was fixed by the ingested alcohol and showed hardly any autolytic changes despite a post-mortem interval of five days. Congener analysis of the gastric contents and the femoral blood indicated the uptake of a fruit distillate or its foreshot.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Freiburg University Medical Centre, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jungmann
authors.forename: M Grosse
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Perdekamp
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bohnert
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Auwärter
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pollak
mesh_terms: D020001:1-Butanol / Q000032:analysis; D000433:1-Propanol / Q000032:analysis; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000440:Butanols / Q000032:analysis; D002074:Butanones / Q000032:analysis; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning*; D005260:Female; D005390:Fires; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D053593:Forensic Toxicology; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D005766:Gastrointestinal Contents; D006801:Humans; D007830:Larynx / Q000473:pathology; D000432:Methanol / Q000032:analysis; D000439:Pentanols / Q000032:analysis; D010614:Pharynx / Q000473:pathology; D015208:Smoke Inhalation Injury / Q000473:pathology; D053260:Soot; D013405:Suicide
chemical_list: D000440:Butanols; D002074:Butanones; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000439:Pentanols; D053260:Soot; C043958:2-butanol; D000431:Ethanol; C040507:isobutyl alcohol; C005222:methylethyl ketone; D020001:1-Butanol; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin; D000433:1-Propanol; C029683:isopentyl alcohol; D000432:Methanol