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16755

Potential Errors in Forensic Medicine Practice: Case reports and literature review

Article

Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

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Abstract

In Egypt, the Forensic Medicine profession is a multidisciplinary medical specialty that mainly deals with the examination of deceased persons suspected to have been injured or killed by external influence such as trauma or intoxication. In addition, clinical forensic medicine deals with living persons with violent injuries either intentional or accidental like those resulting from medical errors, sexual assaults or age determination. The forensic medical examiner may be confronted with challenging cases of burned, decomposed, or dismembered bodies. Although the legislation regarding forensic pathology differs between countries, a universal principle is that in the investigation of a possible or suspected criminal death, a forensic examiner is engaged through a formal request from the police or the prosecutor as a medical expert for justice. However, unlike many other medical specialties, malpractice in forensic medicine profession is an issue seldom presented in literature worldwide. The current study aim was to shed lights on some cases as different examples of potential forensic malpractice in Egypt. The five cases discussed indicated that there are several unique features of errors in the performance of medico-legal autopsies beside systematic legal errors that can all distort investigation outcome or interpretation with subsequent unjust sentences or decisions. Those task-specific errors need to be tackled by adopting efficient and different training and qualification policies alongside supporting legislation and financial aids for funding additional complementary facilities.

DOI

10.21608/zjfm.2018.4531.1017

Keywords

Forensic, malpractice, Errors, cases, Egypt

Authors

First Name

Ghada

Last Name

Omran

MiddleName

Ali

Affiliation

Forensic medicine and clinical toxicology, faculty of medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

Email

ghada_ali@hotmail.com

City

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Orcid

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First Name

Ragaa

Last Name

Abdel-Elmaaboud

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology department, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

Email

ragaamohabd@yahoo.com

City

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Orcid

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Volume

16

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

5260

Issue Date

2018-01-01

Receive Date

2018-07-22

Publish Date

2018-01-01

Page Start

103

Page End

109

Print ISSN

1687-160X

Online ISSN

2536-9849

Link

https://zjfm.journals.ekb.eg/article_16755.html

Detail API

https://zjfm.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=16755

Order

8

Type

Original Article

Type Code

402

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine

Publication Link

https://zjfm.journals.ekb.eg/

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Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023