0000000000874560
AUTHOR
S. Heinze
Fatal attack on a pedestrian by an escaped circus elephant
Abstract We report the case of a 65-year-old man who was attacked and killed by a female elephant that had previously escaped from a nearby circus. According to a witness the man was lifted up by the tusks, flung into the air and stomped upon. At autopsy the body showed signs of severe blunt force trauma and impalement, including multiple lacerations of the skin, a crushed thorax, a spinal fracture and a fractured humerus. The spinal cord and the major abdominal vessels were severed. There have been very few elephant attacks in Europe; this is the first reported case in Germany.
Analysis of metacarpal V fractures of an interdisciplinary emergency room of an urban German hospital from a forensic viewpoint
Metacarpal V fractures, especially metacarpal neck fractures, are known to the forensic society as a ‘boxer’s fracture’ and are described as being mostly caused by punching an immovable or firm object with force with a closed fist. To our knowledge there is no larger study that examines these fractures under forensic considerations of epidemiology. Our study includes the analysis of metacarpal V fractures in an interdisciplinary, academic and university-affiliated emergency department of an urban hospital over a period of three years. Emergency data sheets were systematically analysed and X-rays evaluated. The results were compared with the existing literature.