Interesting info

Friday, July 10, 2009

So today, the 10th of July is the birthday for the State of Wyoming. The Equality state is 119 years. Also on July 8, 2009 at 12:34:56 it was 12:34:56 7-8-09. This is the only time this will happen in our lifetimes.

Last night I went on a decomp call and you would not believe how amazing the human body is. When I got near the house the smell was obvious, however, after a few minutes my nose had closed off making the smell unnoticeable, even when I left the house and returned the smell was only noticeable for a few minutes. I am told smearing Vicks Vapo Rub under your nose is not a solution for this smell, despite what you often see on TV. This is because Vicks makes you begin to smell better and instead you just learn to hate Vicks. What else was interesting was the degree of decomposition that this body exhibited. Heat is retained well in a mobile home or trailer, and the effect of the heat after a day or two in this decomposition case was very evident.

Currently, our office has had two accidents caused by men falling asleep. One occurred when one crossed a double yellow line and hit a motorcyclist. Now that young man is facing vehicular homicide because he broke the law by crossing the double yellow lines. In the second case the man drifted to the side of the road, woke up and over corrected sending the vehicle into a roll off the side of the road. One of the vehicle’s passengers was killed in that case, however this man is not facing any homicide charges because he did not break the law. Let me explain. In the Wyoming State statutes there is a charge of Reckless Driving but this is given when someone intentionally drives badly. In many cities there is a law against Careless Driving which is when someone drives badly unintentionally. Careless Driving would work in this case but it isn’t a state law so the state highway patrol can’t write a citation for it. The way that Ed has taught me to look at it is, if the person breaks a law causing a homicide then they can be charged. If he does not break a law, then no charges are appropriate.

I have been reading presentations that were given in Colorado by forensic pathologists around Colorado. One presentation was given by Stephen J. Cina, M.D. (the same forensic pathologist that I had Mom and Dad watch a video of when he made a presentation to my Forensic Anthropology class a year or two ago). This man is incredibly interesting to listen to, and its too bad he isn’t in Loveland anymore; Florida kidnapped him :( Anyhoo, I found the following information of interest:

Blunt Force Injuries are caused by a dull weapon impacting the body or by the body impacting a firm surface. They are broken down into three categories:
1. Lacerations are bursting injuries of the skin caused by compression between bone and firm object and are characterized by marginal abrasion, “tissue bridging”, and irregular borders.
2. Abrasions are loss of skin and superficial tissues due to friction, commonly called scrapes.
3. Contusions are bleeding into the soft tissues, commonly called bruises.

Blunt Force injuries may be associated with acceleration/deceleration injuries:
1. Intracranial- Subdural hematoma (SDA)
2. Aortic transection at ligamentum arteriosum (transection is when a force causes a separation and in this case with the aorta)
3. Cervical spinal injuries (a subluxation with the vertebrae is when two vertebrae separate and the spinal cord is cut then vertebrae return to their original position without any fractures.

So as you can see vehicle crashes, falls, and assaults, and abuse can cause a lot of inner damage that is not always visible to those who view the body afterwards. A sudden stop in momentum can cause brain problems because the brain will hit the skull when stopping. Also the other organs can do the same causing inner organ problems.
Key point: Blunt force injuries are not cuts.

Sharp force injuries are caused by implements with at least one sharp edge.
Two basic types of sharp force injuries are:
1) Incised wound (cut) is when the surface dimension of the injury is greater than its depth.
2) Stab wound is when the depth of the wound is greater than its greatest surface dimension.

Two other types of sharp force injuries:
1) Chop wounds (axe) is combined blunt and sharp force injury characterized by an incised wound of the skin and crushing of underlying tissues/bone.
2) Punctures (icepick) are stab wounds with a very small injury of the skin.

To re-approximate, a weapon forensic pathologists can take the skin and push it back together with the use of their fingers, superglue, or scotch tape- not forceps/hemostats.

Postmortem wounds, also called after death wounds, such as mutilations, are often yellow and bloodless.

So after talking about this information with Mark Stratmoen, who was a nurse before taking this job, I was told that we label any form of the skin getting cut as lacerations. Also contusions or bruises that people see aren’t always hematomas because a bruise is just a discoloring of the skin which can happen when blood seeps between skin tissues. A hematoma is clot of blood which is found when an autopsy or other in-depth cutting on that area is done.

I’ve also learned that when writing reports you don’t use the word 'accident' when talking about a vehicle crash. Doing so identifies that incident as an accident, unintended event, when in fact it could be a homicide like those we discussed earlier. So now I use 'crash' or 'collision' and not 'accident'. Another word that isn’t used is 'paraphernalia' because that usually gives the impression that the items are drug related. Oh, and when you are taking pictures, you take a lot because the more the better. Also, none of the pictures you take will ever be deleted, even if you take a picture of the inside of your coat pocket. This is because during a trial a defense attorney could ask you if any pictures were deleted. If you did you would have to say yes, and you open yourself up to the claim that the ones that were deleted probably showed their client was innocent. So to eliminate this possibility, no pictures are deleted.

Finally, I have been reading several books that I have found very interesting. There is a historical fiction author that writes about the Arapahoe and Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation. They are murder mysteries in which the author incorporates information about the People’s traditions and history. Her books are very interesting as well as informative. So far I have read one called Eye of the Wolf. It taught me about the last battle fought between the two tribes. The Arapahoe had been moved to the Bates Hole area by the U.S. However, they were starving so some warriors went out and killed some white settlers’ stock. This came back to the U.S. army and justice needed to be served. The Shoshoni found out and offered to mount an attack on the Arapahoe. The attack occurred on the Arapahoe village early in the morning. It was a slaughter of the Arapahoe tribe only ending when some Arapahoe warriors were able to get up into the trees and begin fighting back at the Shoshoni warriors, eventually sending them into a retreat. I also learned about the Moccasin Telegraph which is term for how fast news on the reservation moves. Ed told me that the Moccasin Telegraph moves information so fast that sometimes people are already present at a scene before law enforcement is even called.

Here is the book information in case you want to read it:
Coel, Margaret, 2005 Eye of the Wolf. New York, New York: The Berkley Publishing Group.