Faculty Bibliography

The death of a relative or anyone in a small, tightly knit community with closely shared cultural and religious values has great social impact. As part of the grieving process, people wish to preserve the memory of a loved one or a community leader. Life masks and death masks have been used as art forms to mark life passages, offering permanent reminders of family and continuity with the past. This article discusses the history and technique of life and death masks and their role in 19th-century American culture.

A 69-year-old man with an acute postinfarction ventricular septal defect was also found to have aortic stenosis. Successful management required closure of the postinfarction ventricular septal defect and replacement of the stenotic aortic valve. The contribution of aortic stenosis to the cause of the infarction and the postinfarction ventricular septal defect, as well as the implications for surgical management, are discussed.

The news media tend to sensationalize murders involving multiple methods because of their inherent brutality. Similarly, when addressing a jury, prosecutors often emphasize the most grisly part of a murder to ensure a speedy conviction. This paper reports a case of a teenage boy who was murdered by the use of multiple methods of asphyxia. The methods of asphyxial death and the reconstruction of the sequence of events by the medical experts during the murder trial played an important role in the conviction and ultimate sentencing of the perpetrators.

A 70-year-old white male alcoholic with a history of congestive heart failure associated with peripheral edema was found dead in a pool of blood with a circumferential laceration of his right leg. A rubberband was found around the leg deep within the wound. The decedent reportedly refused medical treatment for his cardiovascular condition and treated himself by applying rubberbands and bandages around his legs to stop the spread of edema and infection.

With the lengthening of the human life span, cancer has become an increasingly important medical problem for the aged. It is not uncommon to find multiple primary neoplasms in elderly individuals. We recently investigated the death of an elderly man who had died suddenly and had three incidental malignant neoplasms, including a pleural mesothelioma, first diagnosed at autopsy. The importance of performing a complete medicolegal autopsy for epidemiological and statistical purposes is emphasized.