An uncommon finding of subtle Simon’s bleedings in a fatally injured skydiver

Abstract

A 36-year-old male skydiver with 10 years of sky-diving experience was found dead at a local airport after having performed a jump. The aviation inspectors’ investigation showed that it was his third jump of the day, from a height of approximately 1,500 m, which he had made from a Cessna 182 sports airplane. For the jump he used an ‘‘Icarus Crossfire 2-119’’ parachute. He was carrying a digital instrument for height measurement (among other items) and wearing a camera attached to his helmet during the jump. Thus, his altitude and jump were recorded. He jumped from the plane at a measured altitude of 1,480 m, and the parachute activated successfully at an altitude of 780 m, 18 s after commencing the jump. The landing maneuver (called a ‘‘swoop’’) proved problematic as it included pulling back the edges of the parachute’s ‘‘risers’’ in order to level its dome horizontally. Unfortunately, as seen from the the helmet camera recording, his left hand slipped from the riser (Fig. 1a, b), causing the right hand to sharply deactivate the parachute only 10 m above the ground (Fig. 1c), leading to sharp acceleration. Consequently, the skydiver impacted the ground almost horizontally while leaning to the right (Fig. 1d). Due to the extremely high speed of impact he died at the scene of the accident. An autopsy was performed the following day. It noted that the deceased was 181 cm tall and weighed approximately 90 kg. The external examination revealed multiple small excoriations, hematomas, and skin contusions of the face and the anterior side of the neck. Multiple hematomas were observed on the outer and anterior part of the right thigh and the inner part of the left thigh, matching the stitching of the clothing the sky-diver had been wearing. Multiple hematomas and excoriations were also found on the anterior section of both knees and the upper third of the lower legs. The knees were also smudged with dirt (Fig. 2b). Examination of his clothing showed that the skydiving suit’s bottom section, which would have been covering the knees and the right inner thigh, was also torn and covered with dirt (Fig. 2a). Internal examination showed bilateral hematopneumothoraces, containing approximately 2,000 ml of partially clotted blood. The most prominent finding was complete rupture of the aortic isthmus in two places, 0.8 cm apart) (Fig. 3). There were also multiple contusions and lacerations of the lungs, as well as numerous rib fractures, which were more prominent on the right side. Significant pelvic injuries were also present with complete right and an incomplete left sacroiliac joint separation, fracture of the right acetabulum where the head of the right femur was driven into the pelvis, bilateral fractures of both rami of the pubic bones; and complete separation of the pubic symphysis (a so-called ‘‘open book’’ fracture of the pelvis). There was also an incomplete bilateral knee ligament rupture, without any fractures. Hemorrhages beneath the anterior longitudinal ligament of the intervertebral disks in the upper lumbar vertebrae were also noted. Although the hemorrhages were not very pronounced, they were clearly visible (Fig. 4a). Information obtained from the family showed that the skydiver had had a previous history of drug abuse (cocaine and marijuana), but a toxicological analysis of the blood, urine, and vitreous humor showed no traces of either drugs or alcohol. V. Živkovic (&) S. Nikolic Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Belgrade School of Medicine, 31a Deligradska str., 11000 Belgrade, Serbia e-mail: vladinmejl@yahoo.com; vladimir.zivkovic@mfub.bg.ac.rs