Accidental death is the most important non-natural death in the age-group. Old age people with physiological and pathological alterations especially will be endanger by traffic accidents and downfall-injuries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1989 accidental death of 72 persons with an age of at least 60 years were determined at the Institute for Legal Medicine in Hamburg. 41 of them (57%) died by traffic accident. In those cases 18 of them died from pneumonia or embolism of lung as a result to be laid low.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1989, the blood-alcohol-concentration of 1545 elderly persons with an age of at least 60 years, who died suddenly or not of natural causes, was determined at the Institute for Legal Medicine in Hamburg. 238 autopsies were performed. In a total of 143, in 55 subjects of the autopsy series, a blood-alcohol-concentration over 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1991 the brains of 15 persons with an age of at least 60 years and without neurologic or psychiatric disorders were investigated prospectively. Different brain-areas (topographically exactly defined) were investigated for so-called brain-aging. Only the frequency of corpora amylacea and primitive senile plaques showed a tendency to increase in the elderly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFForensic Sci Int
December 1991
This study reports on the relationships between the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and the cause of death - which is of course common knowledge for forensic scientists! Our special aim was to gain unselected data for generalizing conclusions. The blood of 2465 consecutive cases (86% of all 2852 sudden unexpected and unnatural fatalities investigated at the Institute for Legal Medicine in Hamburg during the year 1989) was analysed. The BAC was evaluated according to sex, age, cause of death and place of death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom 1970 to 1990, 55 homicides (including 15 attempted cases) among the elderly (60 years and older) were investigated by the criminal police in Essen, FRG. Forty victims were autopsied at the Institute for Legal Medicine in Essen. Epidemiology with regard to age (mean 72 years), sex (25 males, 30 females), method (primarily use of a blunt object, followed by stabbing and strangulation), and motive (robbery in more than 50% of occurrences) of crime, and psychosociological aspects of victims and offenders are described.
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