Understanding Injuries: Types, Causes, and Prognosis
Types of Injuries
5. Horseshoe Shape
D) Erosion runs. Reproduce the striking surface of the instrument, as with hammers.
E) Linear erosions. When they are thin and multiple, parallel, and equidistant from each other, think of the claw action of animals.
F) Scratches. Stigmas from nails are the result of the traumatic action of nails. There are three types:
- Excoriation linear, thin, arched, involving only the pressure of the nail on the skin.
- Scratch current. Excoriation, thin, elongated, the nail slips on the skin.
- Chafing scratch. The injury, more or less long, occurs when the nail, having penetrated slightly deeper into the skin, slides hard in the direction of its width.
Quantitative Criterion
The size of the erosions and excoriations varies with the instrument and mode of production, thus serving to identify the blunt object sometimes.
Falls
A fall occurs on the same level as the subject when it falls from its own height above the ground, distinguishing different types of falls under the factor of speed.
- Simple or static fall. There is no strange dynamic component to the fall. It usually does not lead to death.
- Complicated fall. Another harmful component is added that complicates traumatic violence and its consequences. For example, if the victim falls into a puddle and death occurs, the cause lies in the second factor (drowning, burns, etc.).
- Phasic fall. Takes place in two or more phases, providing medico-legal data given its own physiognomy.
- Accelerated fall. This is of the highest medico-legal interest due to the severity of its harmful consequences. For example, in a fall from a vehicle at high speed.
- Postmortem fall. Should be taken into account to correctly judge the facts.
Injuries from Falls
Skin lesions are usually superficial and of little consequence: abrasions, bruises, or blood bags, and sometimes harmful contusions. The effects of wounds worsen with age. The effect of trauma varies with the weight of the hilly area and with the living force of the falling body so that accelerated falls will be much higher in intensity and the number of multiple injuries than a simple fall. Due to the fall and the acceleration transmitted to the body, a series of excoriations results, depicting either the place where the fall occurred.
Prognosis
Collapse injuries often have a good prognosis. Death can usually occur in special circumstances: complicated falls or accelerated falls. Keep in mind, too, individual factors such as age, which aggravate the prognosis of falls. The main mechanisms of death involved in falls are:
- Head injuries, causing immediate deaths.
- Decubitus complications in later deaths.
Precipitation
Precipitation differs from a fall by the height from which it takes place. The crash plane is still significantly lower than the subject’s lift. Harmful effects generalize to all areas of the body. In the production of lesions, the force of gravity plays a major role, and propulsive forces join more or less violently, increasing the importance of injuries, often fatal.
Etiology
Precipitation may be accidental, suicidal, and sometimes homicidal. Accidental precipitation is common in the workplace. Children rush through balconies and windows, an eventuality that may also occur in patients with mental illness. It is also characteristic of suicide. It is more frequent, however, as a procedure.