title: Suicidal carbon monoxide poisoning using a gas-powered generator.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The presented case deals with an unusual suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. In a car parked in a highway rest area, the body of a middle-aged man was found. In the open trunk of the car there was a gas-powered generator which was switched on, but no longer running. The tank was three quarters full. At autopsy, bright-red livores, cherry-pink fingernails, cherry-red blood and salmon-red skeletal musculature were found. According to the toxicological analysis performed during autopsy, the COHb content in the corpse blood was 68%.
  
  
  METHODS
  To reconstruct the event, the emergency generator was started again in the man's car. By means of measuring probes placed in the interior of the car, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen were measured and recorded in a concentration-time curve; the concentration of cyanide was measured at the end of the experiment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The lower explosion limit of 500 ppm CO was reached after 30s already. For technical reasons, no further values could be recorded. After about 14 min the engine started stuttering with approximately 14 vol.% of oxygen in the air, but continued to run at a lower speed until the experiment was stopped after 25 min. The final concentration of cyanide was 7.5 ppm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In view of the rapid CO increase in the interior of the vehicle it is to be assumed that the victim lost consciousness very fast.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Versbacher Straße 3, 97078 Würzburg, Germany. Electronic address: katharina.blaesser@uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Blässer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Versbacher Straße 3, 97078 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tatschner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Versbacher Straße 3, 97078 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bohnert
mesh_terms: D001336:Automobiles; D002249:Carbon Monoxide Poisoning / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D005742:Gasoline; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013405:Suicide
chemical_list: D005742:Gasoline; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin
keywords: Carbon monoxide; Gas-powered generator; Suicide; Suicide method