Dilemma of the General Surgeon in a Medico-Legal Autopsy of a Case of Traumatic Asphyxia: A Unique Case Report

Abstract

The ability to perform medicolegal autopsy does not necessarily give a registered medical practitioner the expertise over it which is a  major setback in solving medicolegal cases. Manner of death is very much important to decide as like cause of death and time since death  for the proper disposal of justice to the dead. Traumatic asphyxia is a type of mechanical asphyxia, where respiration is prevented by  external pressure on the body, at the same time inhibiting respiratory movements and compromising venous return from the head. Here we  present a case of traumatic asphyxia where a general surgeon who conducted the autopsy could not be convinced by the police  investigation that tractor accident was the cause for which the deceased succumb to death without any external & internal injuries and  meanwhile got confused with the findings in the body suspecting it to strangulation death which was finally resolved by the opinion of the  subject expert.