Citation

Hlavaty L, Kasper W, Sung L. Am. J. Forensic Med. Pathol. 2019; 40(1): 49-51.

Affiliation

Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office, Detroit, MI.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PAF.0000000000000441

PMID

30346307

Abstract

Celebratory use of fireworks has been an integral part of human civilization for over millennia. While the majority of firework use is festive, their explosive nature can result in traumatic injuries and death. The authors present the death of a 21-year-old man found unresponsive on the floor of his parent's garage with extensive damage to his head after an explosion was heard. Firearms could not be found, but there were unexploded homemade and commercially produced firecrackers and components for the manufacture of additional firecrackers. The radial expansion of the blast wave formed by the intraoral explosion of a firecracker created injuries matching those of an intraoral shotgun wound.

Language: en