Investigation of forensic cases presenting to the emergency service before and during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic

An event that causes deterioration of physical and mental health or death of people as a result of unnatural external factors is considered as a forensic case. The individual who has been exposed to these events and suffered damage first applies to the emergency services of health institutions. In addition to the treatment of emergency cases that apply to the emergency services, a forensic report is prepared as a result of the examination of the cases in the nature of forensic cases. The examination made and the report to be prepared in these units of health institutions are important as well as having a guiding quality for legal proceedings in the next process. This study resulted from the power analysis of a total of 9635 forensic cases, 2334 of which were children (0-18 years old) and 7301 adults (18 years and older), who applied to the emergency services of Ondokuz Mayıs University Health Practice and Research Hospital between November 2018 and July 2021. According to the study, it was done by retrospectively reviewing the files of 800 forensic cases. A form was prepared for the data to be obtained in the study. The protocol number, arrival date, age, gender, type of forensic case, trauma sites, type of poisoning, method of suicide, post-treatment status (discharge, hospitalization, exitus, referral, refusal to receive treatment/admission, emergency service) The data of the clinic and the person who brought the pediatric cases were recorded. It was determined that the patients who applied to the emergency services before and during the pandemic were mostly in the 0-11 age group in children and in the 18-64 age group in adults. Before the pandemic, the highest incidence of falls was 38.6% (n=76), while the highest incidence of stab injuries was 16.4% (n=32) in adults; Among the types of forensic incidents that applied to the emergency services during the pandemic, the highest number of fall cases was seen in children with 43.1% (n=87), and the highest number of in-vehicle traffic accident cases with 17.6% (n=36) in adults. The distribution of the most common trauma sites in both children and adults before and during the pandemic was found to be an unspecified early complication of trauma. As a result, it is important that the records are complete and regular in forensic cases, in terms of the safety of the physician and the prevention of patient victimization in the legal process that may occur afterwards.