Pérez-Pérez V, Burgos-Suárez N

Language: Spanish
References: 7
Page: 482-489
PDF size: 374.64 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: among the violent acts whose medical-legal consequences are evaluated in the Department of Legal Medicine of Ciego de Ávila, the crime of injuries is the one that most frequently requires the completion of the health certificate. According to the Cuban Criminal Code, serious injuries are those that involve imminent danger to the victim's life, and leave deformities or sequelae (anatomical, functional or psychic).
Objective: to present the case of a patient injured by a knife with heart involvement, whose injury – when evaluated for the health check-up after hospital discharge– was described as serious with imminent danger to life.
Case presentation: white, female patient, 25 years old, with no pathological history. According to the facts presented in the documentation provided for review by legal doctors, she was attacked by another person with a knife that caused a 1,5 cm perforating cut in the precordial region (sixth intercostal space and left clavicular midline). In compliance with the requirements established for the medical-legal action, the documentation provided was reviewed and the injured patient was examined to issue the health opinion, consisting of a serious injury with imminent danger to life.
Conclusions: the correct medical action in this case facilitated the subsequent medical and legal qualification of the injuries suffered by the victim. The imminent danger to life was determined by the state, real and proven, of the possibility of death of the victim after suffering a penetrating cardiac trauma.

REFERENCES

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