Forensic Medicine: Burns, Head Injuries, Identity, and Special Topics

This second easy-level Forensic Medicine mock covers a completely different set of foundational topics — zero repetition from Easy Mock 1 — spanning burns, head injuries, asphyxia types, forensic identity, infant deaths, and key legal principles. All thirty questions are at the definitional level.

Questions cover: burn depth classification (second degree = epidermis + partial dermis = blisters + painful), ante-mortem vs post-mortem burns (soot in airways + CO-Hb + protein in blister fluid = ante-mortem), electrical mark characteristics (pale dry crater-like depression with upraised margins), Lichtenberg figures in lightning strike (branching fern-like marks; pathognomonic; transient), smothering (nose + mouth covered; minimal autopsy findings; difficult in infants), choking/café coronary (internal foreign body in airway; sudden death mimicking cardiac arrest), traumatic/crush asphyxia (chest compressed externally; intense face and neck petechiae), SIDS (under 1 year + unexpected + unexplained = diagnosis of exclusion), Shaken Baby Syndrome triad (subdural haemorrhage + retinal haemorrhage + encephalopathy), dying declaration (Section 26 BSA 2023; expectation of death; admissible without cross-examination), sexual assault examination components (head-to-toe + swabs + trace evidence + documentation), spermatozoa survival times (motile up to 6–12 hours; non-motile up to 3–5 days vagina), extradural haemorrhage (skull to dura; middle meningeal artery + temporal fracture; lucid interval), subdural haemorrhage (dura to arachnoid; bridging veins; no skull fracture needed), subarachnoid haemorrhage (arachnoid to pia; berry aneurysm; thunderclap headache), depressed skull fracture (focal blunt force; patterned weapon impression; skull driven inward), skeletal sex determination (pelvis most reliable at 95%+; obstetric differences), dental age estimation (eruption sequence for children; Gustafson's 6 criteria for adults), stature estimation from bones (femur + tibia + regression formulae; population-specific), expert witness role (duty to court; independent; impartial; not advocate), diatom test in drowning (bone marrow diatoms = alive when drowned; systemic distribution by heartbeat), hypothermia autopsy findings (cherry-red skin + Wischnewski spots + paradoxical undressing), hesitation cut vs defensive wound location (flexor wrist = self-inflicted; dorsal forearm = defensive), infanticide definition under Section 101 BNS 2023 (mother + child under 12 months + live birth), positional asphyxia (body position prevents breathing mechanics; airway open), adult skeletal age estimation (clavicle fusion + pubic symphysis phases + rib sternal end), thanatology definition (scientific study of death; causes + process + signs + post-mortem changes), corpus delicti in homicide (death occurred + criminal means; PM report is primary medical contribution), contrecoup injury (brain injured opposite the impact; head moves into stationary surface), and hydrostatic test for live birth in infanticide (lungs float = breathed = live birth).

Topics covered:

• Thermal and electrical injuries: burn depth, ante-mortem vs post-mortem burns, electrocution, lightning
• Asphyxia variants: smothering, choking, traumatic, positional
• Special deaths: SIDS, SBS, hypothermia, infanticide
• Head injuries: EDH, SDH, SAH, depressed fracture, contrecoup
• Identity and anthropology: skeletal sex, age from teeth, age from bone, stature estimation
• Sexual assault: examination components, spermatozoa survival
• Legal medicine: dying declaration (BSA 2023), expert witness, corpus delicti, infanticide (BNS 2023)

Each question cites Nandy's Principles of Forensic Medicine. Allow 30 minutes.