MASS DISASTER

Definition:

• It is an event in which ten or more persons are injured or killed.

Examples:

• Floods
  
• Earthquakes
  
• Transportation fatalities.

Aims of mass disaster investigations:

1. Examination of the bodies of the victims is necessary for 3 main reasons:

• To identify each body.

• To establish the causes of death for legal purposes so that a death certificate can be issued.

• To discover evidence relating to the disaster itself.

• The cooperation of pathologists and police can be considered in 3 phases:

• The first phase: At the accident site.

• The second phase: At the mortuary.

• The third phase: Comparison of previous records with the available results of investigations.
  

The first phase: At the accident site:

There are many procedures that should be carried out at the site of the accident including:

1. Location of the bodies to help in identification e.g. in a room of a hotel etc.

2. Labeling the bodies with numbers.

3. Photographing them in situ.

4. Preparing a plan of the disaster site.

Then bodies are placed in containers to be transferred to the mortuary. Clothing's and associated properties or even parts of the bodies that have become detached in the process of handling must be placed in the same container.

The second phase: In the Mortuary:

Bodies should not be dispersed to numerous small mortuaries as this will make the task of coordination of the investigations very much difficult:

1. Visual identification of the bodies by police or relatives if the bodies intact with minimal external injuries.
2. Then the body which is selected for examination is brought to the autopsy table.

The following steps should be carried out:

• Photograph the body before autopsy.
• Look at the general appearance as regards heights, weight, approximate age, color of skin, hair and eyes, physical deformities birthmarks, old scars, ect.
• Examine clothes for laundry or other marks or tickets.
• Finger prints are examined and compared with known ones for individual ridge characteristics as bifurcation, trifurcation, dots, island, bridge & angle.
• Dental examination is helpful if finger prints, physical characters and clothes are damaged.
• Examination of any fragments of bodies and matching these fragments with the bodies from which they originated thus:

• Muscle attachments should be similar and symmetric as regards size and location.
• Articular surfaces should match in size and general contour.
• Viewing the skeletal remains under ultra violet light as bones of different skeleton reflect U.V. light in distinctive patterns that help to segregate the bones.
• Microscopic examination of cross sections of long bones as regards variation in resorption and number of arrest lines.
• Examination of blood for ABH grouping and other genetic markers to help in matching the separate remains with their corresponding bodies.
  

• Investigations are completed by comparing the results of examination with previous records. Interpol recently produced a disaster victim identification form, which is very useful when there is relatively small number of victims.

Category: Forensic Medicine Notes