A study of medico-legal aspects of death due to burns at a tertiary care centre in Mumbai, India

Abstract

Background: Fire is a well-known double edged sword for human beings as it served as well as destroyed mankind. Death due to thermal burns is a burning topic all over the globe. Material and method: A total of 109 cases of death due to fatal burns were brought for autopsy at a tertiary care centre in Mumbai, India during the period January 2014 to July 2015, were studied. A specially prepared proforma containing medico-legal aspects of death due to burns was filled. It was analysed by using Microsoft excel and tabulated for better understanding. Cases were studied with respect to marital status, alleged history of dowry death, manner of death, recording of dying declaration, history of psychiatric illness, chronic diseases, previous suicidal attempts etc., method of infliction of burn injury, inflammable substance, cause of death and survival period after burn injury infliction. Results: Females were 92 in number (84.4%) out of the 109 cases. Accidental deaths were 71 in number (65.14%). In 12 cases (11.01%), dying declaration was recorded by the police. Seven (6.42%) suffered from psychitric illness while 6 (5.5%) suffered from chronic systemic diseases. Sixty seven cases (61.47%) died of septicemia while 42 (38. 53%) died as a result of shock.

A study of Some Medico-Legal Aspects of Fatal Burn Cases Admitted to Menofia University Hospital over Five Years "A Retrospective Study"

“…Similar findings were found by other studies as Sharma et al, (2006), Dasari et al, (2013) and Vidhate and Pathak(2017). Also Taylor et al, (2014) found a significant association between septicemia in burn cases and occurrence of death.…”

Study of Medicolegal Aspects of Burnt Cases Admitted to Burn Unit, Assiut university Hospitals: retrospective study

“…On the other hand, These findings contradicted those of Vidhate & Pathak (2017), who found that the majority of deaths were suicide in origin, followed by homicidal, and finally, accidental. Different lifestyles, beliefs, and civilizations may be to blame for the large disparities.…”

Pattern of female deaths in Manipur: An autopsy-based cross-sectional study

“…However, in a study by Prajapati,9 poisoning (35.51%) was the commonest cause of suicidal deaths followed by hanging (31.16%) and burns (27.54%). Interestingly, suicide by burn was also observed in our study (2.7%), however, in comparison with other studies, 10,11 it was found to be much lesser, this could be due to nonexistence of a dowry system, which is the root cause of bride burning in other parts of the country. 2 Among the cases of suicides in our study, the majority were in the age group of >10-20 years, which was similar with the study done by Ijomone et al 6 However, in a study by Nath et al, 11 maximum cases (37.96%) were seen in the age group of 21-30 years.…”