Desert Related Death

Mohammed Madadin, Rozanna Al-Abdulrahman, Shatha Alahmed, Rana Alabdulqader, Lama Alshehri and Norah Alkathery
Additional contact information
Mohammed Madadin: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia
Rozanna Al-Abdulrahman: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia
Shatha Alahmed: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia
Rana Alabdulqader: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia
Lama Alshehri: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia
Norah Alkathery: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-11

Abstract: Introduction: Desert death is defined as any death that occurs in the desert and could be attributed to a list of causes including environmental, animal related, undetermined, and other causes. Death in the desert seems to be obscure and little discussed in the field of forensic medicine, despite its importance, and there is only limited literature available on this broad topic. This narrative review aims to identify the most common causes of desert death and its medicolegal implications. Desert death causes: Environmental causes of death could be a result of temperature and lightening-related causes. Moreover, a variety of animals found in deserts are considered to be threatening and fatal, in addition to other and undetermined causes. Medicolegal implications of desert death: Likely to arise from the difficulties faced in finding the cause of death are the identification of the victim and the postmortem injuries that occur. Conclusion: Desert death is a broad topic with great medicolegal significance. More information and case reports need to be added in the literature. Guidelines for people about the danger of going to deserts in specific weather conditions should be implemented. Safety regulations must be taken into account at all times.

Keywords: desert; death; desert death; environmental; animal; medicolegal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11272/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11272/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11272-:d:665793

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().