Autopsy findings in unexpected death associated with “ice block therapy” trigger hypothermia: A case report

Abstract

Introduction: Indonesia is one of the developing countries that have various cultures, ethnicities, and mysticism. Those things influence their society, especially the people in the low middle class and uneducated well. Many people still believe that a disease can occur due to mystical things, so they believe that a dukun can treat it, even if the process is illogical. This phenomenon nowadays still exists in society. Dukun usually has his way to cure or solve someone’s diseases, even though his methods to cure someone’s diseases usually do not have evidence-based and the diseases need to see professionals. It shows in this case. Dukun in this case used ice blocks as his method to cure someone’s disease. This “ice blocks therapy” may trigger hypothermia conditions in someone and also may cause death, especially in a person with chronic disease. The range temperature in the Jember Regency between 21-31oC which makes hypothermia rarely found here. The case will present in this paper. In this case, we present an interesting case about the use of ice blocks, called “ice blocks therapy” and then considered as a therapy method and an unexpected death. Conclusions: Review of patient history, postmortem findings, forensic pathology, and socio-cultural aspects are some of the keys to solving the problem. In this case, hypothermia through ice block therapy plays a role in decreasing organ function which results in death