[A sudden death case in the bath with peculiar scald].

Abstract

A 60-year-old man was found dead in the bathtub of his house on the 2nd of February. Erythema with a clear border was observed on the right side of the face, trunk and around the knees, though the left side of the face, the hips and the feet were normal. The water heater was set outside of the bath, and the heated water flowed from the heater to the bath through the upper pipe. In order to determine the mechanism of the peculiar scalding, changes in the water temperature in the bathtub were measured under the same conditions. An hour after turning on the water heater, the surface water temperature of the bath was 73 degrees C. Zonal gradation of the temperature was observed. At the level of the opening for the lower intake pipe, it was 50 degrees C. The border of the scalding was consistent with the water layer above 50 degrees C.