Forensic examination of a corpse (autopsy). What is the body of an addict from the inside? Crime: archive

Created a series of photos with tough content about the life of drug addicts in Ukraine. This project earned him the 2012 World Press Photo First Prize.

Ukraine has the largest percentage of HIV-infected people in Europe. Stirton's photographs are ruthless. But perhaps this is the truth that both teenagers and children should see - so that they never touch something that disfigures this life so much - drugs.

1. Below in the photographs is the life of drug addict Tatyana (29 years old), she is HIV-positive.

Once Tatyana worked at a bakery, then she lost her job and went into prostitution, then she first tried drugs. Tatyana developed an addiction very quickly.

Gradually, Tanya's income began to fall, and she was forced to take the cheap drug desomorphine ("crocodile"). Mortality from it is very high, 80% of drug addicts who take desomorphine die within 1-2 years, the remaining 20% die a little later (after 3-4 years).

Desomorphine causes vein thrombosis, tissue necrosis, promotes the spread of infection throughout the body. It is not uncommon for a purulent abscess to form in the brain of a drug addict. 5 injections are enough for the limbs to literally begin to rot. The veins of the drug addict quickly become unusable and he is forced to inject into other places, contributing to the spread of necrosis and infection. Very soon drug addicts lose the ability to move and end up in a hospital. Doctors are forced to amputate a gangrenous limb in order to somehow prolong life. Recovery is out of the question.

So Tatyana developed deep necrosis of the tissues of the left leg. The drug addict's friends help remove necrotic tissue, but this will not lead to anything good, since Tanya has a weakened immune system, and the conditions do not allow her to clean the wound properly. Tanya lives with her 11-year-old son and six other drug-addicted prostitutes in a two-room apartment.

All drug addicts are HIV-infected and inject the potion from the same syringe.

2. In the following photographs, the life of two drug addicts and their mother.

For more than 12 years now she has been supporting her children who are drug addicts, they are also HIV-infected. The woman was forced to quit her job to look after children - this is her cross. Children are drug dealers to survive and have a fix for themselves. Children who are drug addicts often reproach their mother that it is she who is to blame for the fact that they are drug addicts. The woman confessed to a journalist that she wants to die.

8. The life of a drug addict Tatyana (45 years old).

She developed psychosis on the basis of withdrawal, she is constantly excited and rushes around the room. Tanya says that there is a motor inside her, which does not allow her to sit still. She is forced to constantly lean on the walls, as it is difficult for her to keep her balance.

This is not an exemplary autopsy, which is shown in kins, but typical of a provincial morgue, in which there is not even a refrigerator (it broke down a few years ago, they never bought a new one).

Here are the tools, in fact, in the travel bag. In the "marching" - because our expert is inter-district, one for three or four districts, which he wanders around two or three times a week, depending on the volume of incidents. Of all the props, we will need, basically, a scalpel, a saw, a rib knife and a ladle spoon (I don’t know how to scientifically call it), and also a “raspator” - something that looks like a rake with four curved teeth. There are no circular saws for the skull cap. GondouRussia, sir…

And here is our client: legs together, arms outstretched. The day before, he was found in his bed in the middle of a terrible srach, with a wound on his head. This, most often, does not mean anything: it’s always like this with drunks - it’s like they fought in the apartment for a week, and the owner looks like they fought with him. The usual condition of both the apartment and the owner, so - as they say, "an autopsy will show." In fairness, I will say that the "criminal" corpses belong mainly to the same contingent.
(By the way, if you came to this post from somewhere out of obscurity, then most likely you already understood what is described here. So it's not too late to turn back. I warned you).

The first stage is the opening of the skull. An incision is made from temple to temple with a scalpel, from which the skin is shifted to the eyebrows and to the back of the head with a raspator. Cynics will immediately remember the anecdote about Little Red Riding Hood, who wore her wolf-skin headdress ... er, with fur inside ...

Sawing the skull cover: incisions from the temples through the frontal and parietal parts. A lenticular hole should form. The lid of the skull is removed with the help of a raspator, and I still can't get used to the sound it makes. Unfortunately, I could not convert it from the internal format of the voice recorder on the mobile to a regular wav, otherwise I would have posted it too.

…that should be the result. A saw is visible in the background, it is made of some soft grades of metal, and so that it does not bend in the process, there is a special “stiffening rib” in the form of a bent plate that fixes the saw blade itself. Our soft saw blunts, unfortunately, quickly, and even this cut was made by it in a blunt state ... There were no traces of a craniocerebral injury on the brain, that is, the wound on the head was superficial. Traces of a hematoma look like blood clots on the surface of the brain (and the hematoma itself, in fact, is a hemorrhage in the brain membrane). With a traumatic brain injury, death occurs from squeezing the brain with hematomas. Well, since there is nothing on the brain (the red spot in the picture is just a blot of blood), we put it aside for the time being and start with the liver.

... We make an incision in the center of the chest, and then, using a scalpel, we push the skin, subcutaneous fat and muscles apart.

... We take out the intestines and set aside.

Then - with a ladle we take urine from the cut bladder for analysis. Cynics will probably now remember the joke about the waiter in the restaurant with a string sticking out of his fly and a "spoon" on his belt. Urine (as well as blood) goes to expert chemists, by the content of alcohol in them it is possible to determine whether the subject abused alcohol before death, and how evil he used it.

Then, with a rib knife, we make cuts in the ribs on both sides of the sternum, and remove the cut out. Access to the lungs is open. By the way, in the middle of the chest on the ribs there is a noticeable red spot. This is no longer a blot, in this place the rib can be broken.

... And here, in fact, are the lungs - along with other internal organs, except for the intestines, which we took out earlier.

This is how we determine if the ribs are broken - they just need to be separated from each other and shake a little. That rib, which seemed to be broken, was actually intact, there was just a hemorrhage. But the lowest of those that are visible in the picture, the ninth one, is indeed broken. It most often falls under the kneading during fights or falls.

And this (I specifically asked to be shown) is the inner wall of the opened aorta. Judging by her perfect condition, the deceased was not a fool to drink. The cardiovascular system of alcoholics is always in excellent condition, and they practically do not get sick with the corresponding diseases. True, in the final stages of alcoholism there are some changes in the heart. Which, by the way, we will now look at ...

... And let's make sure that in our case alcoholism has not gone far: it is also like that of a baby. And it looks so strange because it was cut with a scalpel: you have to look for bodily injuries.

Now the buds are opening...

...and the liver. Here the liver let us down: it is unnaturally light. This is also a sign of alcoholism: a normal liver is much darker, almost brown.

By the way, this is the same spoon that was used to take urine for analysis.

And this is how they take away pieces of internal organs. They will go to expert histologists. Histological examination determines damage to organs and the time of death - more accurately than can be done at autopsy.

Now it remains only to return everything that was taken to its original place. Within the margin of error, of course.

... And shred the brain left at last. He is also clean, without hemorrhages. In short, nothing fatal other than a broken rib and a superficial wound on the skull was found. The primary diagnosis was alcohol intoxication. Histologists, perhaps, will find something else, but it will be at least ten days later (adjusted for Russian conditions - in a month: histologists are sitting in the regional center, where vials with analyzes must still be taken).

If you stick the brain in place, in the skull, then the head will begin to leak in the heat. So the brain goes to the chest. Sometimes the clothes of the deceased are also placed there, if there is room left so that the chest does not bulge too much. But not right now.

Well, everything, now it remains only to sew up the deceased, and stuff him with formalin. Formalin is pumped with a conventional ten-cc syringe. I no longer filmed this part of the process: there was no time.

The photo report and comments to it are intended solely to satisfy curiosity. You can also use them as a visual aid in lectures on the dangers (or benefits) of alcohol, to rid teenagers of suicidal thoughts, advice from detective writers, and the like.

the end

Today in class we watched a video of a forensic medical examination of a corpse (popularly, an autopsy). An hour and a half.
After the movie, the pictures are somehow not at all impressive.

Copyright is not worth it, because did not find the source.
If the authorship of photos and text belong to you - let me know.

2. The new anti-drug campaign is likely to be more successful than the previous ones, as it tries to attract the attention of teenagers by playing on their vanity. For this, pictures of drug addicts taken “before” and “after” are used, which make a very difficult impression.

3. The sheriff's office of Multnomah County (Oregon) has collected a collection of photographs that clearly demonstrate the damage caused to the appearance of drug use.

4. Normal - even attractive - faces in the pictures taken during the first detention of drug addicts, after years, and sometimes even months, turn into emaciated, ulcerated, toothless ruins.

5. These photos are part of Sheriff Bret King's 48-minute documentary From Drugs to Mugs. King hopes the film, available on DVD with photo CDs, will help turn kids off drugs by showing them concrete evidence of the destruction that occurs after months of using methamphetamine, heroin or cocaine.

6. "The point is to show kids the real picture of what happens if they start using hard drugs," says King. "We really wanted to impact their sense of vanity."

7. King knows how strong vanity is in teenagers. “I remember when you were in high school, you had to look your best, wear the ‘right’ clothes and shoes,” he says.

8. Probably the most stunning thing about these pictures is how quickly the appearance changes.

9. Specialists involved in drug addiction problems are not surprised by this speed.

10. For example, according to A. Thomas McLellan (A. Thomas McLellan), director of the Center for Addictions at the University of Pennsylvania, the use of methamphetamine leads to squeezing of the blood vessels around the face.

11. "This causes the gums to shrink, as in old age," - continues McLellan, former director of public policy in the field of drug control of the US Presidential Administration. "The remaining teeth lose color and turn black."

12. Both methamphetamine and heroin are often mixed with powdered sugar. "Fatty and sugary foods cause pimples, but if sugar is injected directly into a vein, the effect is even greater," he adds.

13. "Other foreign matter can lead to cysts on the face and other parts of the body, such as the armpits and groin," says McLellan.

14. The emaciated appearance of drug addicts can be caused by a lack of vitamins and sleep, according to Dr. Larissa Mooney, an addiction psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

15. Regarding facial ulcers, Mooney says: “Sometimes, when using methamphetamine, drug addicts hallucinate as if insects are crawling on them. Trying to get rid of them, drug addicts scratch the skin until the formation of open wounds.

16. Experts do not know exactly when this program will lead to real results, however, Mooney and McLellan are full of hope.

17. "This video is trying to influence what's important to young people," Mooney says. “It's not as abstract as just saying that eventually, after many years, they will get lung cancer. This is what you can see right now.”

18. McLellan agrees that the short time it takes for appearances to break down should have a profound effect on teenagers. “Some of these shots show changes in just six months,” he says. "Such time frames are quite accessible to the understanding of children."

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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office

These photographs were taken in 2005 by American photographer Brent Stirton, who traveled around Ukraine to make a social photo essay about the situation of people living with HIV and AIDS. Photos of Brent can seem truly shocking. It may well be that the people photographed by Brent five years ago are no longer alive.
(Caution! The selection contains photos that may seem unpleasant or frightening!)

33-year-old Svetlana from Kharkov lost almost everything because of the screw. The drug "ate" her lower jaw. But Svetlana was able to quit and even left her ex-husband, a drug addict, who had beaten her for 12 years. Now she dreams of raising her 12-year-old daughter.

Kharkiv drug addict cooks screw in his apartment.

Another junkie at home

39-year-old Dima from Poltava injects himself with a wide shot in front of his mother. The second brother, a drug addict, 36-year-old Ruslan did not get into the frame, but sits next to him. 15 years ago drug addiction brought the children to the grave of their father, and the mother quit her job to take care of the children.