Deaths due to hunger strike: post-mortem findings

Küçük Resim Yok

Tarih

2004

Dergi Başlığı

Dergi ISSN

Cilt Başlığı

Yayıncı

Elsevier Ireland Ltd

Erişim Hakkı

info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess

Özet

Hunger strike is described as voluntary refusal of food and/or fluids. Prolonged starvation may produce many adverse events including even death in rare circumstances. Here, we present three fatal cases (all males, 25-38 years) died from hunger strike. In all corpses, obvious muscle wasting with reduced subcutaneous and internal fat deposits, and atrophy in some organs were demonstrated at autopsy. The extraordinary long starvation period before death could presumably be linked to the thiamine uptake in this period, which had been discontinued by all subjects before the death occurred. Prolonged caloric deficiency with subsequent complications such as multiple organ failure, severe sepsis and ventricular fibrillation could account as major causes of death in these subjects. The competence of the physicians working with hunger strikers about the processes and potential problems is of great importance since they have to acknowledge about them to their patients. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Açıklama

Anahtar Kelimeler

Hunger Strike, Starvation, Autopsy, Vitamin Deficiency, Thiamine

Kaynak

Forensic Science International

WoS Q Değeri

Q2

Scopus Q Değeri

Q1

Cilt

146

Sayı

1

Künye