Medico-Legal Update

The investigation of sudden or unexpected death has got immense importance where the vital objective of the investigation is to exclude a suspicious cause of death. Sudden and suspicious death is a death which is not known to have been caused by any trauma, poisoning or violent asphyxia and where death occurs all of a sudden or within 24 hours of the onset of the terminal symptoms. Natural deaths undoubtedly constitute a significant portion of deaths, which undergo autopsy for investigation of death. In most of the natural deaths in such instances, the death has occurred suddenly or unexpectedly without any obvious disease. Total 109 autopsies were performed during January 2016 to march 2016 (3 months), out of which 28 were suspicious death in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh. Detailed information such as relevant history and data of various parameters of each case was recorded from the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences, Bilaspur, C.G. on the pre-coded Performa. The present study deals with the epidemiological, social and medico-legal aspects of unnatural deaths in male and female. Where we found the ratio of female to male is 19: 09 and burn was the most common cause of death found in female followed by poisoning, violent asphyxia, etc. In India there is noticeable increase in unnatural death of female.