Forensics Quiz

Case: A twenty-year old man was found supine on Thompson Creak Trail with a bullet wound. The entrance of the wound was on the left lateral side 1cm above the third rib. The exit wound was 5cm above the belly button in the umbilical region. While tracing the bullet path you notice at the entrance the bullet travels in the frontal plane with a 45-degree downward angle. On inspection of the right side of the rib cage by x-ray you observe the 8th rib fractured. Fragments of the bullets are then traced to the final exit wound.

Hypothetic Situation: The young college student went out for a refreshing walk along Thompson Creak Trail. While he looked normal, he was in fact a heavy gambler, and was thousands of dollars in debt. He couldn't pay back the money he owed to people, and was planning to run away after a few days, but he didn't know that he was being watched by one of the gang members. After confirming that he was going to run away, the gang member, who was a bit taller than the college student, shot him from the left side, and thwarted his plans of running away (and killed him too.)

The leading diagnosis is the internal blood loss resulted from the bullet injuring his heart or possibly the aorta of his heart, since the entrance of the wound was on the left lateral side 1cm above the third rib.

Another possible diagnosis might be that the bullet went through his lung, which resulted in loss of air and blood clogging up his lungs. However, this possibility can be ruled out by inspecting the lungs during an autopsy. More possibilities can be that, as stated in the case, while tracing the bullet path we notice at the entrance the bullet travels in the frontal plane with a 45-degree downward angle, and the exit wound was 5cm above the belly button in the umbilical region. This means the bullet might go through his stomach and damaged his stomach. The harmful acids in his punctured stomach might corrode his other organs and tissues causing damage to his other systems in the body, which might lead to his death. The same, after an autopsy and examination of his stomach, we could rule out this possibility.