Forensic Analysis of the Cause of Death and Death on Arrival of Patients at the Emergency Room

Korean J Leg Med 2013;37:14-18. Korean

Department of Forensic Medicine, Southern District Office, National Forensic Service,
Yangsan, Korea

Department of Emergency Medicine, Pusan National Universitiy Hospital, Busan, Korea

Department of Emergency Medicine, Ulsan Universitiy Hospital, University of Ulsan College
of Medicine, Ulsan, Korea

 

E-mail : sanchee@korea.kr

 

From January 2007 to June 2012, 55 autopsy cases were reviewed, in which death occurred outside the hospital and the patients were declared dead on arrival at the emergency departments, in order to compare the clinical and postmortem examination diagnoses of death-on-arrival patients in tertiary hospitals in Busan, Yangsan and Ulsan city. Of 22 non-traumatic deaths, 21 occurred from natural causes and 1 from unknown cause (sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS). Clinical diagnoses were cardiovascular diseases or “non-traumatic” / “unknown” while autopsy diagnoses were majorly cardiovascular diseases, especially coronary artery diseases (72.7%). Of 33 unnatural deaths, the cause of death was blunt trauma in 4 patients, sharp-force injury in 6, falling in 10, gunshot injury in 1, traffic accidents in 3, asphyxia in 2, drowning in 2, fire-related death in 1, and intoxication in 4. There were no definite discrepancies between clinical and autopsy diagnoses, except for 5 non-traumatic deaths and 2 unnatural deaths. These results suggest that the role of the emergency department may be crucial in postmortem investigations.

 

Key words : Death on arrival, Emergency room, Postmortem examination