Bleeding to death because of hemorrhage into soft tissues as a cause of death in a beaten battered child

Abstract

Introduction. Bleeding to death is one of the leading causes of death speaking about violent death in general. Bleeding to death mostly happens through hurt organs or blood vessels of thorax, abdomen and neck or because of destruction of extremities or the whole body. Bleeding to death is very often the consequence of blood pouring, rarely of simultaneous pouring and suffusing of blood, and it is extremely rarely the result of blood suffusing solely and especially due to subcutaneous, retoperitoneal and intramediastinal blood suffusing. Fatal bleeding into soft tissues solely is very rare. During a 10- year- period among 3 000 performed autopsies in the Department of Forensic Medicine in Podgorica, the presented case was the unique one. Case report. The paper presents a 5-year-old boy who was beaten to death by his mother and step-father and died because of massive bleeding into soft tissues. Conclusion. In order to establish a cause of death in cases of exsanguination in soft tissues, a series of postmortem diagnostic procedures should be performed, like those presented in this paper.Uvod. Iskrvarenje je jedan od vodecih uzroka smrti kod nasilne smrti uopste. Traumatsko iskrvarenje se najcesce desava usljed krvarenja iz povrijedjenih organa ili krvnih sudova grudnog kosa, trbuha i vrata ili usljed destrukcija ekstremiteta ili cijelog tijela. Iskrvarenost je daleko najcesce posljedica izlivanja krvi, rijetko istovremenog izlivanja i podlivanja krvi, a rijetko nastaje iskljucivo zbog podlivanja krvi i to kod opseznih potkoznih, retroperitonealnih ili intramedijastinalnih krvnih podliva. Iskrvarenje nastalo iskljucivo usljed krvarenja u meka tkiva rijetko se srece u sudskomedicinskoj praksi. Od oko 3 000 obdukcija uradjenih u Odjeljenju za sudsku medicinu u Podgorici u 10-godisnjem periodu prikazani slucaj bio je jedinstven. Prikaz bolesnika. U radu je prikazan 5-godisnji djecak pretucen od strane majke i ocuha kod koga je smrt nastupila iskrvarenjem zbog opseznih krvarenja u meka tkiva Zakljucak. U cilju utvrdjivanja uzroka smrti u slucajevima iskrvarenja u meka tkiva, trebalo bi primjenjivati niz postmortalnih dijagnostickih procedura koje su navedene u ovom radu.