Avalanche fatalities in Czech Republic: a 23-years retrospective study

Czech version

Authors: Štěpánka Pohlová Kučerová ¹; Lukáš Hamerlik ²; Dalibor Kovařík ¹; Michaela Valdová ¹; Adriana Gavronová ²; Lucia Ihnát Rudinská ³; Andrea Vlčková ⁴; Petr Hejna ¹
Authors‘ workplace: Ústav soudního lékařství LF HK a FN Hradec Králové ¹; Ústav soudního lékařství a medicínského práva LF UP a FN Olomouc ²; Ústav soudního lékařství LF OU a FN Ostrava ³; Oddělení soudního lékařství a toxikologie Masarykovy nemocnice v Ústí nad Labem ⁴
Published in: Soud Lék., 69, 2024, No. 2, p. 14-19
Category: Original Article

Overview

Avalanche fatalities are quite rare in the Czech Republic. Due to the presence of avalanche fields in the two Czech mountains, forensic pathologists at some forensic medicine departments may encounter this specific mechanism of accidental death. The authors summarize medicolegal aspects of deaths in avalanches in the territory of the Czech Republic for the twenty-three-year period between 1993–2015. Ten avalanche fatalities were recorded during study period. The studied group consisted of nine male and one female victims. The average age of the deceased was 27.9 years. Skiers or ski-alpinists died in the avalanche in five cases (50%), climbers in two cases (20%), snowboarders in one case (10%), cross-country skiers in one case (10%) and in one case it was a fatality of child playing on a snowy hill (10%). The cause of death was suffocation in four cases (40%), blunt trauma in four cases (40%), and in the remaining two cases it was the survival of trapped persons several hours after being rescued from the avalanche in the hospital; both victims subsequently died as a result of prolonged shock (20%) due to a combination of prolonged suffocation and hypothermia. The time interval from the fall of the avalanche to the rescue of the trapped person was in the range of minutes to 3 hours. The presence of alcohol or drugs was not detected in any studied case.

Keywords:

Autopsy – Hypothermia – forensic medicine – suffocation – avalanche fatalities – avalanche

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Labels

Anatomical pathology Forensic medical examiner Toxicology

Positional asphyxia: accidental death due to head-down position in a badger sett

Sudden death after a mountain bike race

Article was published in

Forensic Medicine

2024 Issue 2