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This male individual jumped from the 28th floor of an apartment block and fell approximately 84 m (275 ft). During the fall he struck a lower level balcony, and this resulted in hindquarter amputation before he landed on the road. There was extensive flattening over the right posterior side of the head. This was associated with a laceration measuring 12 cm long and palpable skull fractures. There was also a palpable fracture of the mandible. Cause of Death: Multiple injuries in a fall.

Fig.1 Close up view of the anterior pelvis and thigh region showing amputation of the left leg.

There were extensive injuries to the post-cranial body. The anterior chest showed two parallel abrasions, extending from below the left nipple and traveling diagonally toward the right hip. These abrasions merged inferiorly to form a more extensive confluent abrasion, which was associated with an extensive laceration along the line of the amputation that exposed loops of bowel and muscles. There were fractures and disruption of the left hemipelvis.

Fig.2 Anterior view of the body showing extensive injuries to the torso and upper and lower limbs. VR image of the anterior view of the complete skeleton showing extensive fracturing of the cranial and post-cranial skeleton.

Fig.3 Anterior and posterior views showing parallel, diagonal abrasions and extensive confluent abrasions with splitting of the skin exposing bowel loops and muscles. There are also extensive abrasions over the posterior chest. Views of the head showing a flattening of the right side.

The posterior chest also showed extensive abrasions. In the upper limbs, a palpable fracture of the left arm with a compound fracture of the left elbow and transverse laceration was noted. In the lower limbs, there was amputation of the left hindquarter. There was also an abrasion to the left knee and lower thigh indicating disruption of the knee and a laceration to the left heel. On the right, there was an abrasion to the thigh with disruption of the underlying muscles and palpable fractures of the underlying femur.

Fig.4 VR image of the anterior view of the complete skeleton showing extensive fracturing of the cranial and post-cranial skeleton.

Both landing surfaces were nondeformable (the balcony railing impacted during the fall and the bitumen road where he finally landed). The clothing worn and the position of the body on impact were not recorded. Postmortem CT showed extensive fracturing of the cranial and post-cranial skeleton. Trauma to the skull showed a pond fracture of the posterior occiput. This indicated a high-velocity impact to the back of the head. The pond fracture comprised extensive radiating linear and concentric fractures involving multiple bones of the cranial vault and diastatic fractures primarily involving the coronal and squamosal sutures of the vault. Fractures are full-thickness, which resulted in extensive fragmentation of the vault with displacement, particularly on the right side. Trauma to the face involved diastatic fractures of the right zygomatic with slight lateral displacement and multiple fractures of the body of the mandible.

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