A case of thoracic organs migrating into the left upper arm subcutaneously due to a runover

A man in his 40s was run over by a wheel loader that was slowly backing up behind him late at night at a construction site. The driver stopped when he saw a man lying on the ground after being hit by the right rear and front wheels. Pre-autopsy postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) revealed that a portion of the left lung extended from the left axilla to the subcutaneous area of the upper arm. An oval mass with a point density of 40–60 Hounsfield units was found in the peripheral lung tissue of the left upper arm. Autopsy findings revealed extensive décollement from the left upper arm to the forearm, with a disconnected heart in the interstitial space and lung tissue straying to the central side.

There are no reports of thoracic organs straying into the upper arm subcutaneously, and when reading forensic PMCT images prior to autopsy, not only crush injury but also organs dislocation should be looked for carefully if the organ is absent.