Cause of Death?

[medicgirl05]

No evidence of foul play...nobody had been in the room...no blood in the ears, definitely not Battle sign.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot I'm going to ask...what's hifema?

Scatrat-very possible that the carotids were occluded due to positioning.

Thanks everyone for the input!

[DFIB]

No evidence of foul play...nobody had been in the room...no blood in the ears, definitely not Battle sign.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot I'm going to ask...what's hifema?

I am the idiot. I wrote that in Spanish. in English it is hyphema.

[medicgirl05]

Ah. No I didn't look at his eyes to be honest. I walked in enough to inspect the scene but since he was obviously dead I didn't inspect as much as I maybe should have. He smelled a little if you know what I mean. ;-)

[Chief1C]

You note between the bathtub and toilet, is that a cramped area. Was his chest against anything, or the weight of his body resting upon his chest? Had a patient crushed between two objects, had only been down for a period of time that day. Unknown how long he was stuck. But he was only stuck by the chest. The head and neck were very dark purple, while the rest of the body was pale when we slid him over onto the slab in the funeral home. No autopsy was done, b/c obviously, there was a crush injury, related to what he was doing. Wrote it up as postural asphyxia secondary to blunt force trauma.

[medicgirl05]

Interesting 1C. No, he wasn't stuck between anything. He had just kind of slid forward off the toilet and his arms and head were propped on the tub.

[Arctickat]

I have had the same case. Head was black and the rest of the body was purplish.

My theroy:

1. His head was in the bathtub and the neck was over the edge of tub closing the carotids.

2. This caused a certain amount of blood to remain "trapped" in the head instead of draining to the bottom.

3. Since it couldn't drain, it remained and, well, clotted, hence the black appearance.

ummmm, carotids or jugulars?

[DFIB]

ummmm, carotids or jugulars?

When BP is absent wouldn't gravity cause flow in both?

[Arctickat]

When BP is absent wouldn't gravity cause flow in both?

Hmm, perhaps you have a point there.

[scratrat]

When BP is absent wouldn't gravity cause flow in both?

No. Veins have one way valves remember. So the blood pooling in from arteries. However, no one has ever told me if, after death, those valves relax and are forced open??

[DwayneEMTP]

I think that the valves are passive both opening and closing, aren't the? Trying to remember back...

But maybe relaxation of the vessels would allow them to part far enough to fail even under the pressure of gravity? Not sure...guessing only...