Profile of Unnatural Deaths in Paediatric Age Group at SMS Medical College and Associated Hospitals Jaipur-an Autopsy Based Study

Unnatural childhood deaths are associated with intense trauma and separation distress for the parents and near relatives. Traumatic injuries can be brought about by many ways like road traffic accident, burns, fall from a height, drowning, hanging, poisoning etc. This study was conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine, SMS Hospital, Jaipur over a period of one year from November, 2013 to October. 2014. A total of 3306 medico-legal autopsies were conducted during the study period, out of them 221 cases were pediatric fatalities due to unnatural causes were included in the study. About two thirds of all the cases were males compared to females which contributed about 33.93%. Majority of the fatalities were attributed to Road traffic accidents (51.61%). In our study shock and coma were found to be nearly at par with each other as mode of death.