Aortic rupture and dissection and importance of its correct diagnosis in forensic medicine (a case report)

The proper diagnosis of the cause of death occurs when there is an interval between symptoms and death time. If there is no interval between them and sudden death occurs, diagnosing cause of death will be impossible. In these cases if the patient’s family has any complaint from anybody, else, diagnosing cause of death via autopsy is needed. A 70 year old man was slightly injured during a car accident and referred to legal medicine center and received a specialist certificate for his traumatic injuries. Approximately five weeks after initial trauma, he had unspecific symptoms for about 24 hours so he went to the local hospital for several times and after some symptomatic treatments finally he died. His family proclaimed against faulty driver and hospital medical team and they declare that initial trauma or medical mismanagement were causes of his death. Postmortem examination and forensic autopsy revealed aortic tear and dissection as the main cause of death and as a result they refrained to follow their complaint of the document was closed. Death determination is not possible, unless autopsy is performed in sudden death and in case of issuing death certificate without performing autopsy, there will be more complications and if there are any complaints against medical staff or others, with prolongation of the process, it will be imposed many material and spiritual costs to all of the involved individuals.