Fatal injury of a skier during school training - case report.

The authors present the case of a fatal accident of a 16-year-old skier who crashed into a tree during a downhill skiing lesson at school. Although the skier was wearing a protective helmet at the time of the accident and his condition did not appear to be too serious immediately after the accident, he later died in hospital as a result of a craniocerebral injury with cerebral contusion and intracranial haemorrhage. His life could not be saved even by immediate neurosurgery, during which fragments of the broken protective helmet were removed from his cranial cavity. By analysing the international literature, the authors identify head and brain injuries as the most common immediate cause of death in downhill skiing and provide insights into the possibilities of preventing these injuries by simple technical means on the part of ski area operators. These means are in particular protective covers for lift columns and protective nets placed in front of fixed, non-movable obstacles on the track.

Fat embolism and COVID-19 infection: autopsy and post-mortem laboratory findings in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients.

INTRODUCTION: The article is one of the very first autopsy reports worldwide, which associates COVID-19 infection and pulmonary fat embolism. AIMS: To point to a crucial connection between a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and pulmonary fat embolism as one of the possible major mechanisms of severe COVID-19 symptoms. METHODS: Lung, brain and kidney tissues examination of 16 full human autopsy cases. All deceased suffered from COVID-19 infection, none of them was admitted to hospital prior to death, immediate causes of death vary. Autopsies accompanied by microbiological examination and histological examination using Oil Red O staining were performed. Consequently, we have implemented a control cohort consisting of 16 deceased with no presence of pulmonary infection and various immediate causes of death. RESULTS: Of the 16 autopsy cases, 11 (68.8%) were males and 5 (31.3%) females, with overall mean age 68.1 (39-86) years. Causes of death of studied subjects were natural, mostly from respiratory failure (in 12 cases, 75%). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed in 7 cases (43.8%). None of dissected persons had larger signs of body trauma. Pulmonary fat embolism was found in 11 cases (68.8%), which generalised to kidneys in 8 patients (50% of all cases, 72.3% of cases with pulmonary fat embolism) and to brain tissue in 1 case. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated a reasonable relation between a COVID-19 disease and a variously severe fat embolism, severity of which does not directly correlate with body weight. Further investigation or even change of medical treatment needs to be considered in patients with COVID-19.

Suicide or not? Issues in the demonstration of anaphylaxis, a review of the literature.

The authors review the literature on the determination of post-mortem serum tryptase values and present the case of a young man who was hit by a train. However, his family believes he has no motivation to commit suicide. Collision with a train is one of the most common methods of suicide, especially among young men under 40 years of age. (1). The forensic autopsy showed that the man died due to the collision with the train, with traumatic hemorrhagic shock stated as a cause of death. Following toxicological, biochemical, and immunological tests created a supposition that the incident was not a result of suicidal action but a consequence of a possible allergic or anaphylactic reaction of the organism combined with a state of mild alcohol intoxication.

[Deaths of people in the mountainous territory of High Tatras]. / Úmrtia vo vysokohorskom teréne na území Vysokých Tatier.

Authors Poprad, since the establishment of the Department of Forensic Medicine in Poprad in 1991 up to now. As mountainous environment is considered an area above the border of Tatranská magistrálna (a tourist footpath which leads across the High Tatras and partially Western Tatras). The file discusses the causes and mechanisms of death and their causal relationships, shows the nationality, age, gender or place of death of deceased people, amounts of deaths in the months of year and also in the days of week. Some results are shown in the graphs, the percentage results are described in a text. Valuable and complete results were reached only in cases with describe statistically a group of people who died in the mountainous environment of the High and Belianske Tatras for the last 25 years and who were dissected on the Department of Forensic Medicine in complete documentation (and also after autopsy, not every case of death was autopsied). At the same time, the authors describe the system of cooperation between the Department of Forensic medicine and Pathological Anatomy of Health care surveillance Poprad with Mountain rescue components and the Police force of Slovak Republic, operating in the territory of the High and Belianske Tatras. These components help us to gain information about the case, which are not usually known during the first inspection of dead body in a mortuary or at the moment of an autopsy (hikers and climbers are often alone in the mountains, so their accidents are without witnesses).