Epidemiological Study of Cases of Death Due to Drowning at Mortuary of North Bengal Medical College Hospital

Authors

  • Jagadish Biswas
  • Vivek Kumar
  • Tenzing Zampel Bhutia
  • Prabir Kumar Deb
  • Mrinal Kanti Jha

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37506/ijfmt.v15i3.15305

Keywords:

Drowning, Death, Public health, Suffocation, Asphyxia

Abstract

Drowning is a mode of asphyxia which literally means, ‘suffer death by submersion in water or any other
liquid’ or ‘suffocation by submersion in water or any other liquid because of being unable to breath’. As per
WHO, in 2015, an estimated 360 000 people died from drowning, making drowning a major public health
problem worldwide. We have conducted this study in Morgue of North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri to
find out the demographic profile of drowning cases of North Bengal Region. In this study we have analysed
the 55 cases of drowning deaths autopsied in the mortuary of Department of Forensic Medicine, NBMCH,
Darjeeling, West Bengal in the last one year from 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020. All data were
analysed by appropriate statistical tools like SPSS software. In this study we found that most of the cases
belong to young adult age group (29%) and cases are mostly of males (82%). In the month of July to
September (34.54%) cases of drowning deaths were high and most of deceased died due to fall inside the
well (43 %). Incidence of drowning deaths were mostly seen between 12 noon to 4 pm (60%) and 89.09 %
cases of drowning deaths occurred immediately after the incidence.

 

Author Biographies

  • Jagadish Biswas


    Assistant Professor ,Department of FMT, KPC Medical Collage, Kolkata

  • Vivek Kumar

    Assistant Professor , Department of FMT, KPC Medical Collage, Kolkata

  • Tenzing Zampel Bhutia

    MD Post graduate trainee ,Department of FMT, KPC Medical Collage, Kolkata

  • Prabir Kumar Deb

    Professor, Department of FMT, North Bengal Medical College,
    Darjeeling ,, Department of FMT, KPC Medical Collage, Kolkata

  • Mrinal Kanti Jha

    Professor, Department of FMT, KPC Medical Collage, Kolkata

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Published

2021-05-17

How to Cite

Epidemiological Study of Cases of Death Due to Drowning at Mortuary of North Bengal Medical College Hospital. (2021). Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, 15(3), 200-204. https://doi.org/10.37506/ijfmt.v15i3.15305