[Uncharacteristic soft tissue injuries detectable in cases of death from general accidental hypothermia].

Abstract

General accidental hypothermia, which leads to death, is a complex problem, the scale of which is significantly underestimated. Statistics on mortality from general deep hypothermia are underreported because the diagnosis is often established after the fact, especially if death occurs in conditions complicating the body discovery or the cause of death determination. Many cases of death, erroneously classified as cardiovascular diseases or other causes, may actually be the result of long-term exposure to cold. In such situations, especially in remote areas or in the absence of proper forensic examination, the true cause of death may remain unknown.

Objective: To describe the local signs of human death from hypothermia.

Material and methods: In order to establish additional local signs of death from hypothermia, the findings of forensic experts and personal observations on the corpses of people who died from hypothermia on land (150 observations) were analyzed, as well as the personal photo archives of A.Yu. Chudakov.

Results: The article describes uncharacteristic but very common soft tissue injuries for death from general hypothermia, including bite wounds of the fingers, abrasions, minor wounds on the back of the hands and fingers, detached nails from terminal self-digging, linear stripe-like abrasions on the face, wounds and bruises on the face and head, areas of the elbow and knee joints, which may indicate events that occurred in the terminal phase and some other data.

Conclusion: Diagnosis of death from hypothermia requires a comprehensive approach, including inspection of the accident site (place of the corpse's discovery), analysis of history, external examination, forensic investigation, histological examination, as well as toxicological and other laboratory tests. Only a comprehensive analysis of all the data allows to establish the exact cause of death and exclude other factors. The mechanisms of human behavior in cooling are complex and require further research, including the study of neurochemical processes occurring in the brain under critical hypothermia.