Citation

Smędra A, Sidelnik P, Goryca W, Berent J. Am. J. Forensic Med. Pathol. 2017; 38(3): 249-253.

Affiliation

From the *Chair and Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Łódź, Łódź; †Department of Small Arms Testing, Military Institute of Armament Technology, Zielonka; and ‡Faculty of Law and Administration, Department of Criminalistics, University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PAF.0000000000000311

PMID

28498136

Abstract

The article presents a case of an 18-year-old woman wounded by a shot fired from a distance with a hunting weapon. Because the location of the entrance and exit wounds initially seemed inconsistent with the reports (both wounds were described as "large and irregular in shape") and no photographs documenting the inflicted injuries were taken, the case was referred for an opinion to the Department of Forensic Medicine in Lodz. After a review of the medical records, radiology, the victim's clothing, and performance of an experiment using the gun and ammunition, it was established that the entrance wound was located on the abdomen, and the exit wound was located on the buttock. The initial problems with recognizing the entrance and exit wounds encountered by the surgical team were caused by bullet deformation. Before hitting the body, the projectile pierced a mobile phone that was in the pocket of the woman's jacket, subsequently causing a large atypical secondary entrance wound. The experiment confirmed that, when the projectile passed through an obstacle with consequent deformation, it caused more extensive gunshot wounds, both at the entrance and at the exit, as well as more severe damage to the bones.

Language: en