2.0 Death Investigation Flashcards
A process whereby a Coroner or Forensic Pathologists seeks to understand how and why a person died.
Death Investigation
- An official who investigates violent, sudden or suspicious death.
- Investigates all deaths where the cause is unknown.
- Where there is reason to think the death may not be due to natural causes, or which need an inquiry for some other reason.
Coroner
- England
- Eyre or Judicial Circuit
- Inspecting villages
- Holding court
- Settling disputes
- Levying fines
- Also called “Crowners”
1994 Coroner
- A properly trained physician charged with the responsibility and authority to investigate deaths and to determine cause and manner of death in a particular jurisdiction.
Medical Examiner
- The subspecialty of medicine devoted to the medical investigation of death.
Forensic Pathology
DEATH INVESTIGATION SYSTEMS
- Determine the __________, and how death came about.
- Identify the _________.
- Determine the _________ and _________.
- __________ from the body that may be useful in the police investigation.
- Document injuries that are present or absence.
- Deduce how injuries occurred.
- Document any ______ present.
- Document or exclude any __________ or ___________ in the death.
- cause of death
- decedent
- time of death; injury
- Collect evidence
- Document injuries
- natural disease
- causative or contributory factors
- The most important section of the Medical Examiner’s office.
- Takes a leading role in helping to establish positive identification of the decedent.
- Responsible for transporting decedents, finger printing, inventorying personal effects and admitting and releasing bodies from the morgue.
Investigator
- Also known as Medical Section
- Forensic pathologists and technician
- Includes Forensic odontologists and other medical specialists that can help in determining the decedent’s cause and manner of death and its identification.
Autopsy Section
- A surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present for research or educational purposes.
Autopsy
- Also known as Post-mortem examination, Obduction, Necropsy, or Autopsia cadaverum
- Performed by a specialized medical doctor called a pathologist.
Autopsy
PURPOSES OF AUTOPSY
- Determine if death was natural or unnatural.
- Injury source and extent on the corpse.
- Manner of death must be determined.
- Time since death.
- Establish identity of the deceased.
- Retain relevant organs.
- If it is an infant, determine live birth and viability.
o Seek to find the cause and manner of death and to identify the decedent.
o They are generally performed, as prescribed by applicable law, in cases of violent, suspicious or sudden deaths, deaths without medical assistance or during surgical procedures.
Medico-legal or Forensic or Coroner’s Autopsies
o Performed to diagnose a particular disease or for research purposes.
o They aim to determine, clarify, or confirm medical diagnoses that remained unknown or unclear prior to the patient’s death.
Clinical or Pathological Autopsies
o Are performed by students of anatomy for study purpose only.
Anatomical or Academic Autopsies
o Performed utilizing imaging technology only, primarily magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT).
Virtual or Medical Imaging Autopsies