Management of the dead during coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak: Practices and perceptions of forensic practitioners from India

2021 ◽  
pp. 002580242110258
Author(s):  
Vikas P Meshram ◽  
Tanuj Kanchan ◽  
Raghvendra S Shekhawat
Keyword(s):  
Infection Control ◽  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
The Body ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has mandated a response from administrative agencies and the health sector globally, however, the number of cases and deaths continue to rise. While management of the living is paramount, the management of the dead is also important. Guidelines for managing the dead have been issued and implemented by various local administrations, in accordance with national and international guidelines. This questionnaire-based research aims to develop an understanding of the knowledge, perceptions and practices of forensic practitioners from India as regards the management of the dead during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This Pan-India study included 278 forensic medicine experts (249 males and 29 females) working in various hospitals and medical institutions across the country. The questionnaire included various issues involving the management of dead bodies in cases involving coronavirus disease 2019, such as infection control practices, body screening, handling and autopsy, disposal practices, local administrative policies, and available infrastructure and resources. We found that guidelines are mostly being followed across India, barring disparity in issues relating to testing in the dead bodies, the role of local administration in the body disposal, and the use of personal protective equipment while handling bodies and during autopsies. Mortuaries now need to be upgraded, and general infrastructure requires improvement. Periodic training of all stakeholders and assessment of facilities are recommended.

Making an Exhibition of Ourselves: Using the Dead to Fight the Battles of the Living

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
American Military ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Osama Bin Laden ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nuremberg Trials

In October 2011, graphic images of a blood-stained and dead Muammar Gaddafi were sent around the internet. For some time after his death, his dead body was displayed at a house in Misrat, where masses of people queued to see it. His corpse provided a focus for the Libyan people, as proof that he really was dead and could finally be dominated. When Osama bin Laden was killed by the American military in May that same year, unlike Gaddafi, the body was absent, but the absence was significant. Shortly after he was killed a decision was taken not to show pictures of the dead body and it was buried at sea. The American military appear to have been concerned it would become a physical site for his supporters to congregate, and the photographs used by different sides in a propaganda war. Both cases reflect an aim to control the dead body and associated meanings with the person; that is not unusual: after the Nuremberg trials, the Allied authorities cremated Hermann Göring—who committed suicide prior to his scheduled hanging—so that his grave would not become a place of worship for Nazi sympathizers. These examples should remind us that dead bodies have longer lives than is at first obvious. They are central to rituals of mourning, but beyond this, throughout history, they have also played a role in political battles and provided a—sometimes contested—focus for reconciliation and remembrance. They have political and social capital and are objects with symbolic potential. In The Political Lives of Dead Bodies the anthropologist Katherine Verdery explores the way the dead body has been used in this way and why it is particularly effective. Firstly, she observes, human remains are effective symbolic objects because their meaning is ambiguous; that is whilst their associated meanings are contingent on a number of factors, including the individual and the cultural context, they are not fixed and are open to interpretation and manipulation: ‘Remains are concrete, yet protean; they do not have a single meaning but are open to many different readings’ (Verdery 1999: 28).

Dead Bodies, Affective States and Volatile Icons

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-101
Author(s):  
Daniella Kuzmanovic
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
Turkish Nationalism ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead

Dead bodies are symbolically effective in the context of politics, and enjoy a particular connection with affect. The mass-mediated mobilizations around Hrant Dink and the dead body of Dink suggest that there is indeed something about Katherine Verdery’s insight. Dink was a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, editor, civic activist and a controversial public figure in Turkey. He was assassinated in 2007. Rather than focusing on the Armenian aspect in context of Turkish nationalism in order to grasp the efficacy of Dink and of his dead body, this article dwells on the intertwinement between his dead body and experiences of state subjects in Turkey. I argue that the efficacy of Dink, the semantic and affective density generated by way of the dead body, is produced in a conjuncture where neither meanings around the body and the person it embodied, nor of the state will stabilize.

scholarly journals How to Undo Things with Codes: New Writing Mechanisms and the Un/archivable Dis/appearing text

2014 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Athina Markopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Major Change ◽  
The Body ◽  
William Gibson ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Writing Tools ◽  
Book Of The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

The discourses of criticism are being transformed at the same time that our writing mechanisms are undergoing a major change. Reflecting on the relationship between our writing tools and our perceptions and taking programmability and interactivity as the main characteristics of new writing media, this essay attempts an approach to how that which is new in scriptural techniques, that is to say, programmability and interactivity, are undoing our perception of such notions as the archive and embodiment. The two works which are here commented contain the conditions of unwriting their written trace; the interactor who makes the text appear paradoxically also causes its disappearance by acts of destruction or dispersion. In the case of AGRIPPA (A Book of The Dead), William Gibson reserves for the reader the role of the destructor of the text through an extreme gesture of interaction which destines the work to erasure and calls for the retrieval of a text that contains the conditions of its own death. In the case of Garry Hill‘s Writing Corpora, the body‘s acts are created of, create and are turned against writing, they embody and disperse the writing traces, while the body experiences the shift from inscription to embodiment.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Guidelines to Protect Healthcare Workers at Hospitals and Dental Professionals at Dental Office

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bassel Tarakji ◽  
Mohammad Zakaria Nassani ◽  
Faisal Mehsen Alali ◽  
Abdulwahab A. Abuderman
Keyword(s):  
Infection Control ◽  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Dental Treatment ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
The Body ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Dental Office ◽  
Control Procedures ◽  
Dental Professionals

BACKGROUND፡ Coronavirus disease 2019 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. This study aimed to address the preventive procedures to protect healthcare workers at hospital to avoid COVID-19, and infection control procedures to protect dental professionals in dental office.METHODS: We conducted a search of published articles from PubMed, google scholar databases using key words such as COVID-19, healthcare worker, infection control, and dental practice. Relevant articles were identified and reviewed. Most published papers were clinical reports and case studies. We have selected some of the current published papers written in English in 2020.RESULTS: Infection control procedures to protect health workers at hospitals, and dental professionals at dental office were summurised and presented. Infection control procedures for healthcare workers at hospitals include Personal protective equipment, Korea filter (KF)94 respirator, goggles, face protector,disposable waterproof long-arm gown, and gloves, and others. Extra-protection procedures should be taken with old and vulnerable healthcare workers. Dental professionals should evaluate patients in advance before starting dental treatment. Aerosols generating procedures should be avoided and personal protective equipment should be used. Dental treatment should be restricted to emergency cases only.CONCLUSION: Old medical staff should be in safer distance to avoid infection, but young physicians and nurses should work at frontline as their immunity is better than their colleagues at old age. Screening patients and measurement of the body temperature are essential measures before dental treatment.

Death caused by addictive inhalation of nitrous oxide

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 1875-1877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Potocka-Banas ◽  
Slawomir Majdanik ◽  
Grazyna Dutkiewicz ◽  
Krzysztof Borowiak ◽  
Tomasz Janus
Keyword(s):  
Nitrous Oxide ◽  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
Fatal Case ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cardiorespiratory Failure ◽  
Accidental Overdose ◽  
Autopsy Report ◽  
Diagnostic Difficulties ◽  
Medical University

Intoxications with nitrous oxide have been, and still are, a rarity in forensic medicine. Apart from accidental overdose during hospital procedures, intoxication with this gas is the result of voluntary inhalation. We report the fatal case of a 32-year-old male who died during inhalation of nitrous oxide from whipped dairy cream cans and hint on the role of the internet in creating new behaviors among drug addicts. We rely on the autopsy report from the Department of Forensic Medicine, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, on laboratory tests, and court files. Neither the autopsy nor the toxicologic and histopathologic tests disclosed the exact cause of death. However, circumstances in which the body was discovered were indicative that death resulted from cardiorespiratory failure. The present case is interesting with regard to its rarity, diagnostic difficulties and potential harm from nitrous oxide used by the food industry.

Morbid Subjects: Forensic medicine and sovereignty in Siam

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 394-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
QUENTIN (TRAIS) PEARSON
Keyword(s):  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Forensic Evidence ◽  
Medical Jurisprudence ◽  
Racial Privilege ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead

AbstractThis article examines the question of Siamese sovereignty in the era of high imperialism through the lens of medical jurisprudence. Although Siam (Thailand) was never formally colonized, it was subject to unequal trade treaties that established extraterritorial legal rights for foreign residents. In cases where a foreign resident was suspected of having harmed a Siamese subject, the Siamese state had to appeal to foreign consular officials to file charges against the suspect. Standards of forensic evidence were crucial in such cases. While medical jurisprudence helped to bolster racial privilege in other colonial legal jurisdictions, this article argues that these disputes rendered the dead and injured bodies of Siamese subjects into potentially powerful pieces of leverage against foreign residents and their political representatives. The dead bodies of Siamese subjects became grounds for challenging foreign courts and asserting Siamese sovereignty.

scholarly journals How to handle the deceased body of COVID-19: an insight from Indonesian muslim burial handlers knowledge, perception, and practice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tri Bayu Purnama ◽  
Siti Khadijah ◽  
Idris Sadri
Keyword(s):  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
The Body ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Universal Precaution ◽  
Qualitative Design ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
The Dead

Introduction: Handling the remained body affected by COVID-19 in Indonesia is still an issue as it is done by community. Aim: This study aims to explore the handlers knowledge, perception, and practice in handling the remains. Method: This study elaborates qualitative design in exploring the handlers knowledge, perception, and practice in handling the remains dealing with universal precaution during the handling of the deceased body of COVID-19. The data is obtained through in-depth interview with guides. Result: The majority of participants were acknowledged that the universal precaution is a precautionary conduct which remains general and non-technical. Technicality on the universal precaution such as personal protective equipment and safety standards for infectious substance on the dead body are still incomprehensive. The perception of each handler of the body is still obscure. It was showed by cautious/apprehensive sense predominated the handlers in handling the dead body. Conclusion: Improving the knowledge and strengthening the network of the handlers among the community play an important role in interrupting the chain of transmission of COVID-19 in the community.

scholarly journals On Time, (In)equality, and Death

2021 ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Fred Smith Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
American History ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Common Features ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead

In recent years, American institutions have inadvertently encountered the bodies of former slaves with increasing frequency. Pledges of respect are common features of these discoveries, accompanied by cultural debates about what “respect” means. Often embedded in these debates is an intuition that there is something special about respecting the dead bodies, burial sites, and images of victims of mass, systemic horrors. This Article employs legal doctrine, philosophical insights, and American history to both interrogate and anchor this intuition. Law can inform these debates because we regularly turn to legal settings to resolve disputes about the dead. Yet the passage of time, systemic dehumanization, and changing egalitarian norms all complicate efforts to apply traditional legal considerations to disputes about victims of subordination. While, for example, courts usually consult decedents’ expressed intentions to resolve disputes, how do we divine the wishes of people who died centuries ago, under a legal system designed to negate and dishonor their intentions? How do we honor relationships like kinship for people who were routinely and forcibly separated from their kin? And how do we assess the motives or culpability of institutions that, in prior generations, were complicit in profound horrors, but now pledge honor and respect? This Article offers a theory of time and equality to help guide cultural and legal debates about the treatment of dead victims of mass horror. On this account, we can become complicit in past, systemic subordination by dishonoring the memories of victims. Systemic neglect and exploitation of a group’s bodies and images can diminish the role of that group in shaping our national memory. And if it is wrong to deny a person the ability to leave a legacy on account of race under contemporary egalitarian norms, then we ought not engage in posthumous acts against the enslaved and other systemically debased persons that perpetually rob them of such a legacy.

scholarly journals Displaying dead bodies: bones and human biomatter post-genocide

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Auchter
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
After Effects ◽  
Art And Politics ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Mass Atrocity ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The One

The after-effects of mass atrocity – bodies and bones – struggle to be defined within memorial projects. This article seeks to examine the politics at play in displaying dead bodies to interrogate the role of materiality in efforts to memorialise and raise awareness about on-going violences. It focusses on the nexus between evidence, dignity, humanity and memory to explore bone display in Rwanda. It then takes up two artistic projects that play on the materiality of human remains after atrocity: the art of Carl Michael von Hausswolff, who took ashes from an urn at the Majdanek concentration camp and used them as the material for his painting, and the One Million Bones Project, an installation that exhibits ceramic bones to raise awareness about global violence. In thinking about the intersections between human biomatter, art and politics, the article seeks to raise questions about both production and consumption: how bones and ashes of the dead are produced, and how they are consumed by viewers when placed on display in a variety of ways.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document