Death from Electrocution

, Sang-Doek Woo

Original Article

Korean Journal of Legal Medicine 1983;7(Suppl DB Error: syntax error):35-37.

National Institute of Scientific Investigation

Abstract

Electricity is a form of energy which under certain conditions can injure the body and cause death. The human body is a good conductor of electricity. In the pathway of an electric current, the maximal local injuries are usually produced at the skin sites of entry and exit, since the skin has the highest resistance to the flow of electrical energy. Electrical currents passing through the brain or the left side of the body and heart are more dangerous than pathways that bypass vital organs. Electrical burns, particullary those from alternating current, may be followed by paralysis of the respiratory center of ventricular fibrillation, or both. If patients die immediately, autopsy findings are limited to burns and generalized petechial hemorrhages.