Murderer who spread table salt over his victim's corpse unintentionally preserved it from putrefaction

Adipocere is medico-legally exigent post-mortem change alternative to putrefaction. Sprinkling table salt over corpse to hasten disintegration and keep carnivores and nibblers off is a feature of ritualistic burial. We describe an unusual murder concealment wherein assailant put quantum of table salt over and around dead body while burying in jungle to hasten disintegration. Unexpected adipocere involving table salt preserved the body and firearm injuries. A mystifying thanatological aspect was the basic fact of table salt osmotically drawing even intrinsic body water needed for adipocere in non-damp conditions. It exceptionally formed in a week, and in a shallow grave, its formation in such conditions being very unusual and unreported.

[Occurrence of a lethal outcome due to iatrogenic damage of an intercostal vessel during a pleural puncture procedure]

A rare case of a lethal outcome due to iatrogenic damage to the intercostal vessel, a collateral branch of the posterior intercostal artery, is described. The little-known features of the topography of this vessel (location on the upper edge of the underlying rib), which requires further study in the context of variable anatomy, are given. The risks associated with deviations from the traditionally recommended sites of pleural puncture (below the eighth intercostal space to the scapular line) are substantiated. An analysis of the characteristics of bleeding arising from the intercostal vessels (from two ends, under high pressure, etc.) is given, which implies the extreme importance of a timely diagnosis. Differing points of view on the legal assessment of malpractice when care is delivered by a series of doctors, and the legal necessity of determining the 'point of no return' (the latest moment after the onset of bleeding, in which medical aid can still prevent an unfavorable outcome), are considered. An opinion is expressed on the need for the active participation (initiative) of an expert in the provision of expertise.