Dr. Albert Green. - A Case of Post-Mortem Parturition. - (Lancet., 1895, 5 / i, p. 27). - A case of childbirth after death (with eversion of the uterus and rupture of the perineum).

Abstract

A 20-year-old girl, so obese that her parents, with whom she lived, did not suppress her pregnancy, which had reached a normal term, suddenly fell ill with a headache; at night she had convulsions. The invited doctor found her in an unconscious state; seizures of convulsions were 3-4 times per hour, more tonic than clonic in nature, the tongue was bitten, the pupils were dilated. The doctor suspected poisoning with some kind of alkoloid. In the morning the patient died without being destroyed. Two women, who washed the deceased and laid her on the table, did not suppress her child's emergence; they covered her with a sheet, which there was no reason to reveal for two days, until the forensic medical examination of the corpse by Dr. Green. The last one, having removed the sheet, saw that between the legs of the deceased lay a dead newborn child, legs down, with the head at the mother's genitals, that is, with the buttocks presented; a fleshy round mass protruded from the genital organs of the deceased, which turned out to be the bottom of the uterus turned upside down and not separated from it after the house; the umbilical cord was very short. Traces of bleeding or clots were not detected. The perineum of the parturient woman was torn. Her belly was very swollen, and when she was punctured, a huge amount of gas came out of it. There were no pathological phenomena in the organs of the abdomen and chest. Strychnine was not found in the stomach and intestines sent to the chemical laboratory.