What Affects the Appearance of a Bruise? Bruising is one of the most common types of physical injury observed in victims of violence, assault, and abuse. There are several factors that affect a bruise’s appearance,…
PHYSICAL SIGNS OF ABUSE When searching “physical signs of abuse,” many journals and websites list the following physical characteristics: Bruises Cuts Burns Restraint or grip markings Black eyes Unusual pattern of injury Repeated trips to…
Ultraviolet Radiation and Forensics In forensics, ultraviolet radiation is used to enhance injuries of the skin. It has been reported that ultraviolet radiation can help visualize an old bruise and can also estimate the shape…
Those of you who follow me know I have several posts about how you can’t date bruises by color, but there is emerging literature to show that bruises can be dated on tissue analysis: How…
In April, I covered delirium and noted that there are many underlying etiologies that can cause it. One such etiology is infection. Infection and our body Our bodies are constantly fighting infections. Our skin is…
In April, I covered delirium and noted that there are many underlying etiologies that can cause it. One of those underlying causes is brain injuries, or intracranial processes such as stroke, tumor or traumatic injury.…
In many of our cases we come across symptoms of delirium and are asked to determine if they are due to the assumed etiology, like alcohol or drug intoxication; or from something else, like seizures,…
This is the last in the “5 things criminal attorneys should know about…” series where I highlight some areas of medicine that often cross into the criminal fields. This is not meant to be an…
We’ve been republishing a series called “5 things criminal attorneys should know about …” where we highlight some areas of medicine that often cross into the criminal fields. The topic of Pressure ulcers was not…
In many criminal cases, Adult Protective Services and the police are called because a patient arrives at the hospital with multiple and severe wounds called pressure ulcers. They often are septic because the wounds have…
1. Dating bruises – bruises cannot be dated by color. IF yellow can be identified, one can determine that the bruise is at least 18 hours old. All other colors can be observed from the first…
Legal implications – civil: Non-traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (stroke): For cases involving warfarin or Coumadin- was the patient’s lab work such as PT/INR adequately monitored? If the patient was suffering from Coumadin toxicity, what was the…
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