Environmental Deaths and Homicide Investigations

Environmental Deaths and Homicide Investigations

Introduction

Environmental death occurs suddenly without warning symptoms apparent, as in the case of a heart attack, a brain racking and a lot of fulminating disease.The family, caught by surprise, wonder endlessly if there were indications that did understand that there was a problem, if the beloved has suffered or not, whether he realized that he was dying. Immediately stand the guilt for not having done enough, for not having read the signals that were there, not urged him to heal, or is accused medical neglect.

This torment will go on for some time until the answers will leave unfulfilled the knowledge that his death could not be avoided. The sudden environmental death creates a huge upheaval due to the new reality that lies ahead: the person who until recently was the first among us, there will be no more. Everything that happened before death takes on a heavy weight, such an argument, a sorrow, a great moment, the last words. These are all things that we stick obsessively to try to find explanations or make sense.

Have negative feelings towards those who died is not a welcome thing, it is usual to censor them, but anger and resentment may be present, especially when the deceased carried out conduct that increased the risk of early death, like smoking or being overweight. Family members feel abandoned as if that person had sought the death. Clearly express these thoughts help in creating relaxation and facilitates the process of reconciliation.

Drowning

We understand death by asphyxiation drowning occurred after immersion in water or other liquid, so that being clogged airways by water, preventing the passage of atmospheric air and oxygen breathing apparatus. It is included under the denomination of secondary drowning all lesions that appear after 24 hours of immersion or by lung infection or injury in various organs including the lungs.

The highest frequency of events occurs in childhood, between the first and five years. Then there is another period of maximum frequency, between fifteen and twenty years. In our experience, most cases occur in very young children in unguarded moments, by the family, they fall into wells, or swimming pools without fencing. To a lesser extent are young people under the influence of alcohol and other drugs.

Quote we have treated two adults with a history of heart problems and, presumably, had suffered a myocardial infarction while bathing (both in cardiac arrest at the time of medical care and ineffective resuscitation). In both cases, the dip was due to traffic accidents, and otherwise (depressed woman with no family) to a suicide attempt.

Regarding gender distribution, frequency classically described almost ten times higher in men compared to women. Among the previous diseases include epilepsy and heart problems as triggers of this situation. Depending on the type and composition of the water, we can distinguish:

Drowning in fresh water or river

Drowning in salt water or sea

Drowning in swimming pool

Drowning in polluted water

So we can say that an increased frequency of drowning in private ...