Can One Punch Kill? {Assault/Trauma}
A review of medications and medical history can play a critical role in any case with traumatic injuries.
Two Black Eyes But He Swears He Didn’t Hit Her {Assault/Trauma}
Two Black Eyes, also known as Raccoon’s eyes, is a sign of a skull fracture and does not necessarily indicate blunt force trauma to the face. Because this type of skull fracture is often missed on radiology studies, a medical expert is needed to review the records and determine the cause of the bruising. […]
What Constitutes GBI? {Assault/Trauma}
I am often called to testify in assault cases in which great bodily injury is an enhancement. In these cases I try to determine the severity of the injury based off of the medical records and photographs. For this month’s newsletter, I’d like to point out some ways to avoid pitfalls in GBI cases by using […]
Legal implications of nasal fractures
Our medical expert recently got retained in a criminal case where the victim suffered an injury to her nose. She had a reported history of previous nasal trauma but was diagnosed with a nasal fracture by x-ray in the emergency department. Our expert testified that a diagnosis of nasal fracture made by x-ray has a high […]
Nasal Fractures: What does the literature say?
Legal Aspects in Nasal Fractures Rhinology, 1991 ABSTRACT A criminal act is involved in a high percentage of cases of nasal fracture, and exact medical information describing the damages found is mandatory for the criminal court. It is necessary, that the medical information are obtained from the ENT-department, where the patient is treated, as the […]
Does the patient in your case have a nasal fracture?
According to Dr. Greg Gilbert, from Stanford University Medical Center, x-rays of the nose serve no purpose in diagnosing nasal fractures: “A nasal fracture is a clinical diagnosis and not one that should be made with radiographs. They have a high false positive rate and cannot be relied upon with any degree of certainty as […]
What is a nasal fracture, really?
Nasal fractures are the most common facial fracture and the third most common fracture of any bone in the body. They most frequently occur as a result of assault or motor vehicle collisions. What we call our “nose” is made up of both bone and cartilage where the cartilage sits in front of the bone. […]
