Abstract
3/2018
vol. 68
Case report
Asphyxia using a piece of a sarong at a psychiatric unit: a case of self-strangulation
- Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
- Teaching Hospital, Kandy, Sri Lanka
Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol 2018; 68 (3): 179–187
Online publish date: 2019/02/20
Self-strangulation should be cautiously determined following a comprehensive death investigation because the circumstance of strangulation is usually homicide. The deceased was a 33-year-old male who suffered from depression and was found missing from a psychiatric unit while on treatment. The deceased was found the following day in the doctors’ car park of the unit. The deceased was in a prone position with a strip of material from the sarong he was wearing round his neck and features of strangulation. Scene investigation and autopsy with the history of psychiatric disease confirmed self-strangulation. The rarity of self-strangulation, especially in a hospital, and the ligature material used being a strip of material from the sarong he was wearing inspired us to report this case.
Keywords
depression, suicide, asphyxia, self-strangulation, ligature strangulation
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