Abstract
A careful investigation of the scene where an infant or child dies (or becomes incapacitated) is critical to determining why infants and children die suddenly and unexpectedly away from the hospital. Despite the reliance on the autopsy to determine the causes of these sudden deaths, often the only explanation for a death can be found in a careful scene investigation. Not only must the scene be carefully documented and photographed, but those caring for the infant or child need to be carefully interviewed to understand exactly what happened prior to the death. Often the infants and children suddenly dying at a scene are no longer present at the scene at the time of the investigation. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately recreate the environment the infant or child was in at the time of death. This can be done best as part of a well-documented doll reenactment. Special attention must be given to the possibility of asphyxia as a cause of death since asphyxial deaths produce either no, or nonspecific, pathologic findings at autopsy. The scene investigation also is vital to corroborate positive autopsy findings such as evidence consistent with underlying natural diseases or potential mechanisms to explain documented trauma.
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Randall, B. (2014). Pediatric Death Scene Investigation. In: Collins, K., Byard, R. (eds) Forensic Pathology of Infancy and Childhood. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-403-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-403-2_3
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