Hello, dearest AbsoluteWriters,
In my most recent story, I have included a brief scene set in an anatomical theatre at a university in Belgrade, where students of forensic pathology are inspecting a corpse of a person that has suffered a very violent death.
The professor quizzes the students about several injuries and scars that can be found on the body for exam purposes.
However, I must confess that I have little to no experience in medicine or human biology, so I was quite a bit out of my depth when I took to writing these down.
Therefore, I would appreciate if someone who does know what he's talking about could look over these statements and direct my attention to any factual mistakes I have made terminology-, medicine-, anatomy- or even medical education-wise (seeing how this is mean to be a scene sat in medical school).
I have included these bits of dialogue down below:
Here, a student describes injuries the dead person (a thirty year-old woman who survived the Yugoslav Wars) had sustained during a landmine blast, during which she caught shrapnel in the back of her thigh that had to be surgically removed, several years before her death:
- Student: “Oh! I can see… lacerated skin at… four… five different locations.” She pointed a finger at a number of bulging scars that dotted and criss-crossed her leg muscles seemingly at random, “Minor hypertrophic scars. Heavily cicatrised. Judging by the state of healing, the wound age is around five years. Judging by the shape, the result of a surgical suture to treat a sharp trauma. There’s the possibility of damage of the ischiocrural muscles, particularly the biceps femoris. Debilitating, but most likely not life-threatening.”
Here, a student and her professor argue about a very old wound the victim sustained when she was hit by a ricocheting rifle-calibre bullet in her shoulder (when she was a 13 year-old child), which too had to be surgically treated, almost two decades before her death:
- Student: “Uh… I see… a single hypertrophic scar. Cicatrised. Wound age… very high. Ten to fifteen years. Surgical suture to treat… intermedullary fixation of the clavicle? And… uh… uhm...”
- Professor: “Lacking, Miss Kazun. We are looking at a... ballistic trauma that severely fractured the clavicle. .30 Russian Short, close range, though probably a ricochet. Hence the need of an intermedullary fixation. (...)But was this life-threatening? What say you, Miss Kazun?”
- Student: “Uh… only if the subclavian artery were injured. Though there doesn’t seem to be any indication of that.”
- Professor: “Alright, alright. I don’t want to be too cruel. We’d be here all day if you had to go over every single one of those injuries. Just sum up the cause of death for me, will you?”
- Student: “A-alright. One can already see by the absence of healing process that these wounds were causal for the death. They are common injuries with fall victims from great heights. A fall upward of seven metres seems… very likely. She impacted on a hard surface with her pelvis. It was most likely the major trauma that killed her.”
Thanks in advance!
In my most recent story, I have included a brief scene set in an anatomical theatre at a university in Belgrade, where students of forensic pathology are inspecting a corpse of a person that has suffered a very violent death.
The professor quizzes the students about several injuries and scars that can be found on the body for exam purposes.
However, I must confess that I have little to no experience in medicine or human biology, so I was quite a bit out of my depth when I took to writing these down.
Therefore, I would appreciate if someone who does know what he's talking about could look over these statements and direct my attention to any factual mistakes I have made terminology-, medicine-, anatomy- or even medical education-wise (seeing how this is mean to be a scene sat in medical school).
I have included these bits of dialogue down below:
Here, a student describes injuries the dead person (a thirty year-old woman who survived the Yugoslav Wars) had sustained during a landmine blast, during which she caught shrapnel in the back of her thigh that had to be surgically removed, several years before her death:
In this portion, a student describes fairly recent injuries the victim took to the face when a heavy stone hit her on the left side on the jaw, injuring (among other things) her jaw and teeth, (only) a week or so before her death:
- Student: “Uh... a blunt force trauma. Effusion and tumefaction of the risorius muscle. Very probably a mandibular fracture resulting of the trauma. Wound age is less than a month before death.”
Here, a student and her professor argue about a very old wound the victim sustained when she was hit by a ricocheting rifle-calibre bullet in her shoulder (when she was a 13 year-old child), which too had to be surgically treated, almost two decades before her death:
- Professor: “Lacking, Miss Kazun. We are looking at a... ballistic trauma that severely fractured the clavicle. .30 Russian Short, close range, though probably a ricochet. Hence the need of an intermedullary fixation. (...)But was this life-threatening? What say you, Miss Kazun?”
- Student: “Uh… only if the subclavian artery were injured. Though there doesn’t seem to be any indication of that.”
In the following portion, the professor aks a student to come to the 'grand finale' of their examination: To describe the victim's death by by falling from great height, during which the body was partially destroyed during the collision:
- Student: “Ahem… Well… we are looking at… well... at severe fracturing of the lumbar spine, severe fracturing of the thoracic spine, severe fracturing of the Acetabulum, severe fracturing of both femurs, several fractures of the anterior inferior and superior iliac spines…”
- Professor: “Alright, alright. I don’t want to be too cruel. We’d be here all day if you had to go over every single one of those injuries. Just sum up the cause of death for me, will you?”
- Student: “A-alright. One can already see by the absence of healing process that these wounds were causal for the death. They are common injuries with fall victims from great heights. A fall upward of seven metres seems… very likely. She impacted on a hard surface with her pelvis. It was most likely the major trauma that killed her.”
Thanks in advance!
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