Natural death, violent and suspicious crime
Natural death
It is the death because of the end of existence, spontaneous and expected, possible in any human being, as a natural event belonging to life;They occur in pathological processes, or spontaneous etiologies, particular of a person, in the absence of premeditated acts of violence of the same subject for them, or violent implication of a third party or acts committed by third parties. Endogenous factors such as senectud, degenerative pathologies, oncological pathologies, cardiovascular diseases and others, and exogenous factors such as infectious causes pathologies.
Violent death
This type of death is due to an opposite fact to the natural, defined by the execution of intentional violent events of the same person against himself, or in the presence of violent intervention of third parties or third -party acts. Its etiology from the medical-legal point of view is due to suicidal, homicidal or accidental mechanism.
Suspicious death of crime
It is all types of death, which can be of natural origin, comes to present some indication or doubt so it performs an autopsy.
These cases are characterized by rapid death events in human being with appearance of not having a pathological history, occasions of sudden death, or due to space and time events that prevent a precise assessment of the immediate reason for the death, they make it a suspicion of crime,being necessary to perform the autopsy.
Cadaveric phenomena
They are alterations that occur in the body from the moment the biochemical processes end, when this intervened for different effects are seen. These effects are principles of nature that influence any element. During life there is a feedback with the environment that is absent when it dies.
ABIOTIC CADAVERIC Phenomena
They are changes that occur in the lifeless body due to the environmental conditions that affect it.
Cooling
Considered the manifestation that occurs in the lifeless body with great speed, and it is possible to recognize without application so much science. When the human being dies, the centers of thermal regulation culminate its function: the human body becomes an inert element and will host the temperature of the environment to which it is exhibited. In general, the body tends to reduce the temperature in places with temperate climates and outdoor bodies;The opposite occurs in the body exposed in open areas with extreme tropical climates and in closed spaces, thus increasing its temperature.
With respect to the organs, in the case of the brain the temperature is preserved for a long time, however, in the face, hands and feet it is lost quickly (cold at 24 hours after death). Next, the temperature falls into legs and arms. Then on thorax, back and finally in neck, armpits and abdomen. Changes in evolution are due to the etiology of death, individual factors and the environment. Wet air better channels the heat than dry air since ventilation improves caloric transfer by convection.
According to the Bouchut rule;In case of cooling, you reach different ways in its beginning and evolution, but commonly the first 12 hours the decrease falls from 0.8-1 grade/hour, then it is 0.3-0.5 degrees/hour (at room temperature of 5-15 degrees).
Simpson estimate considers that the first 6 hours the expected temperature of the body fluctuates between 30-34 degrees, at 10 am it declines at 28 degrees and at 15 hours of 24 degrees 26 degrees (with ambient temperature between 16-20 degrees).
The Glaister formula considers the cadaveric rectal temperature and normal rectal temperature, including mathematical constants to compensate for the initial heat loss, it serves to estimate the postmortem interval (imp) 1:
Imp = (Normal rectal rectal tº
The Hensssge Normogram is used to indicate the death time assessing the rectal temperature, ambient temperature and body weight (at temperatures up to 23 degrees and 23-35 degrees), having a margin of error of 2.8 to 7 hours.
CadaVeric dehydration
This phenomenon will depend on external environmental circumstances, the temperature and ventilation being more intense. Manifesting by general phenomena such as weight loss and premises such as snacks in the skin, desiccation of mucous membranes (lips, vulva and glans) and ocular alterations that are very interesting and obvious:
Loss of transparency of the cornea: it is the anatomical part where it begins to be observed, which is often called the loss of the brightness of the eyes and the cornea becomes murky. In case they are open eyes, an approximate 45 minutes have to come to be notic. There may be confusion in those bodies that a third closed their eyes, having deceased with their eyes open.
SonMer-Lacher sclerotic stain: it is an unequal, dark color stain that appears, first, at the internal angle and then on the outer eye, it occurs in 40% of the lifeless body and is caused by the oxidation of the oxidation of theblood contained in the choroid vessels in addition to the dehydration of the sclera, which makes it possible to visualize it.
Sinking of the eyeball: It can be seen from approximately 8 hours after death, to consider it an accurate sign must be measured with ocular tonometry, the level of intraocular pressure, which will measure on average 18 mmHg. In heat conditions the eye would lose up to 1 mmhg every 20 minutes.
Cadaveric livideces
They are early physical signals that occur in a lifeless body, also called position spots, they are treated in variable shape and size in the skin that are observed the areas with the greatest decline of the body due to the positional accumulation of the blood in the capillaries of the dermisconcomitant to the effect of gravity. Its evaluation is necessary because it allows the assessment of the postmortem interval and cause of death, from the color, location, intensity and chronological sequence of appearance.It also allows to evaluate the initial and final position of the corpse.
In the case of paradoxical lies. They occur mostly in deaths due to suffocation or toxic agents, due to the mobilization of the body.
The spots are mostly red, but there are variants such as: violet red (varies according to oxygen content in hemoglobin), bluish red (deaths from suffocation), cherry red (due to poisoning by products such as cyanide or monoxidecarbon), greenish red (in cases of a sepsis by clostridium) and pink (due hypothermia or the body has been submerged in water, producing the mixture of the blood with ingested water and its subsequent transfer to blood circulation).
With respect to their chronology, they are presented at 20-45 minutes in the regions of the neck and trunk, converge from 2 hours and generalize at 12 noon. In the interval of 12 to 18 hours they are attenuated before the pressure, due to mobility, secondary livideces could appear. They do not change or produce new from 18 to 48 hours. (They get to fix).
With the condition that the body is in supine position, the chronological evolution of the cadv3 to 5 hours in the rest of the body and from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. invade the lower plane.
Hypostasis
They are spots of diverse shapes and sizes that appear in the visceral organs (lung, spleen, liver and kidneys) due to the blood tank in the capillaries of these organs.
Biotic cadaveric phenomena
Are those modifications of physical-chemical nature that manifest once the death of the person.
Cadaveric rigidity
In a period of 3 and 4 hours postmortem begins a contraction phase of muscle groups, called cadaveric stiffness, which includes the total muscles, first of all, affects the smooth muscle and then the skeletal muscle. As for the beginning of cadaveric rigidity, it is cephalocaudal, according to the majority of experts, it starts from the muscles of the face, neck, thorax, abdomen and chest and pelvic members. This cadaveric phenomenon has to do directly with the appearance of adenosynthryphosphate (ATP) on the neuromuscular plate, with the same particularities of stiffness of the beginning, this is no longer an effect of ATP, but of lysis by hydrolytic enzymes,Both actin and myosin molecules, consequent. The stiffness is complete in an interval of 8 to 12 hours and reaches its maximum intensity at 24 hours, it disappears at 36 to 48 hours. There are factors that influence rigidity such as: high temperatures where rigidity is rapid and smaller period, at low temperatures stiffness is maintained for longer, in the case of hydration it delays stiffness and vice versa, in the case of sudden deathThe stiffness is intense and lasting, the conditions that determine the descent of ATP (the seizures, violent exercise, hyperthermia, tetanus, electrocution, strict poisoning) will cause early stiffness. From the medical-legal point of view it is important in the diagnosis of real death, in determining the dating of the death and reconstruction of the events that caused death.
Cadaveric spasm
Considered a type of stiffness, it is characterized by a state of muscle contraction after sudden death due to generalized or focused spasm. It is expressed instantaneously and that happens without having gone through the relaxation phase (the lifeless body that with horror expression). Its medical-legal relevance mainly in the cadaveric spasm focused on the hand seen in cases of firearm suicide in which the weapon is commonly located by the victim is commonly located, being fundamental to exclude simulation in case of homicide.
Destructive phenomena
Autolysis
It is considered a grouping of anaerobic fermentative processes that occur within the cells due to cell enzymes without bacteria participation, since the person dies, partial oxygen pressures within the cell are reduced. In the case of lasting agonized events, this catabolism generates even more damage at the cellular level, to the degree that begins with accelerated modifications of the hydrogenage concentration (pH). Structures such as cell membrane, nucleus and mitochondria, "suffer" changes to the degree of prospering a process of tissue necrosis in its 3 phases: latent, anarchic and chromatolysis phase. The degree of destruction depends on the organ;Among those that are affected faster are the adrenal gland and the brain;The case of the pancreas and the spleen, which are organs with more friable tissue, then suffer modifications;in muscle composition organs;among them the heart, uterus or other than these such as intestinal handles and colon are more resistant to autolysis. The absence of oxygenation that allowed the modifications of pH and hydroelectrolytic.
Putrefaction
It is the process of decomposition of the body, due to bacteria. These microorganisms belong to the flora of the intestines, and that after death they disseminate by blood circulation;Therefore, it is understood that in the livideces and other areas where there was a greater amount of blood, greater rot. They are rarely added from abroad, and enter at the cutaneous level.
It begins with the action of aerobic bacteria (subtilis bacilli, proteus vulgaris and coli), then the optional aerobes (bacilli Putrificus coli, liquefaciens magnus and choleric vibrion), and, finally, in the absence of oxygenation, anaerobic bacteria participate, that produce gases. Among them, the most frequent is clostridium and bacteria that are involved in gas gangrene.
The decomposition is expressed by 4 phases, whose periods in temperatures, between 17 and 24 degrees Celsius is as follows:
- Chromatic period. – The first sign is the greenish stain in the abdomen, mainly in the right iliac fossa or in the 2 iliac graves, after 24 hours;The veined veined, at 48 hours, which is based on the observation of the venous network at the cutaneous level by inhibition of hemoglobin converted to sulfur compounds, and ends with the greenish or blackish coloration of the body, at 4 days,
- Emphysematous period. – Here is the action of bacteria that produce gases, generating tissue swelling. At the cutaneous level, blisters are established with takeoff from the epidermis, which will then be drawn to palms and plants, and even the nails. Prominences are signed in abdomen, cheek and eyelids. Protrusion of the tongue and rectum is visualized. The expulsion of the fetus in the body of a pregnant woman can occur. All this happens at 7 days of death,
- Colicutative period. – In this phase the tissues dissolve, starting with the lower regions. Having the body as characteristic the appearance of caramelado. Next, it becomes a mass of jelly and brown tone. This phase can happen in an interval of 2 to 4 weeks.
- Skeletal reduction period. – Equally called skeletonization. It is presented in an interval of 3 to 5 years. It is possible to progress to spray.
Bibliography
- Takajashi Medina, F., n.d. Forensic Medicine. 1st ed. Mexico City: Vanessa Berenice Torres Rodríguez, P.67.
- Lizancos Castro a. Natural, violent and suspicious death of crime. Forensic Medical Study of Cadaveric Phenomena [Internet]. 1st ed. Madrid: DR. Bandrés;2016 [Cited 1 July 2020]. Available from: https: // www.Studocu.com/es/document/university-complutense-madrid/medicine-legal-and-toxicology/notes/12-concepts-of-mind-natural-violent-and-sospecha-de-criminality-phenomena-channels/3055565/view
- Vargas Alvarado e. Legal Medicine. 4th ed. San José, Costa Rica: Lehmann;2012.
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