title: A fatal elephant attack.
abstract: A rare case of an elephant attack is presented. A 44-year-old man working as an elephant keeper was attacked by a cow elephant when he tripped over a foot chain while the animal was being medically treated. The man fell down and was consequently repeatedly attacked with elephant tusks. The man sustained multiple stab injuries to both groin regions, a penetrating injury to the abdominal wall with traumatic prolapse of the loops of the small bowel, multiple defects of the mesentery, and incomplete laceration of the abdominal aorta with massive bleeding into the abdominal cavity. In addition to the penetrating injuries, the man sustained multiple rib fractures with contusion of both lungs and laceration of the right lobe of the liver, and comminuted fractures of the pelvic arch and left femoral body. The man died shortly after he had been received at the hospital. The cause of death was attributed to traumatic shock.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. hejnap@lfhk.cuni.cz
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hejna
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zátopková
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Safr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D000836:Animals, Zoo; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004606:Elephants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D014951:Wounds, Stab / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*