Abstract
4/2017
vol. 67
Case report
Evisceration and intestine damage as a rare form of suicide in forensic and psychiatric practice – description of two cases
- Chair and Department of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Toxicology, School of Medicine in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland
- Psychiatric Ward, Poviat Hospital in Chrzanów, Poland
- Daily Psychiatric Ward, Poviat Hospital in Chrzanów, Poland
- General Surgery Ward, Poviat Hospital in Chrzanów, Poland
Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol 2017; 67 (4): 264–274
Online publish date: 2018/04/16
Suicide is a major public health problem around the world. Case reports include extreme suicidal self-inflicted injuries, in which extensive damage to the abdominal wall associated with injury or even excision of fragments of the intestine and its fragmentation are present. These cases usually give rise to doubts of investigators as to the course of the incident, the circumstances of death and the possibility of participation of other people. At the same time they are interesting from the medico-legal and psychiatric perspective. The aim of this study is the presentation of two extremely rare cases of suicides through evisceration and intestinal injury from the clinical and opinioning practice of the authors, one of which ended with survival and the second one with death. Regardless of the final result of the suicide attempt (death or survival), good practice of the investigative teams in such cases should include a detailed examination of the place of the suicide attempt, obtaining opinion of an expert in the field of forensic medicine with full post-mortem diagnosis, and in-depth forensic psychological and psychiatric analysis of, among others, lifeline, mental state and suicidal motivation (so-called psychological autopsy).
Keywords
pain threshold, autoagression, self-mutilation, self-inflicted injuries, self-made laparotomy
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