BODY-PACKING AS CAUSE OF UNEXPECTED SUDDEN-DEATH

Four fatalities related to smuggling of drugs by body-packing were inv estigated. The victims were examined at the Institute of Forensic Medi cine of Hamburg University between 1983 and 1995, two of them due to ' 'sudden'' unknown cause of death. All victims were male. Two of them w ere found already dead in a backyard and in a hotel, two other were em ergency cases and died at a hospital. Smuggled substances included coc aine (two cases), heroin and amphetamine/caffeine. In all cases, the c ause of death was intoxication caused by tom packages which were detec ted at autopsy. The maximum weight of the packet's contents was 630 g divided in 90 packages. Only one victim was apparently an intravenous drug-abuser. Hair analysis was performed in three cases and revealed i n one case a difference between a concealed and a habitually consumed drug. Toxicological analysis revealed that the substances were quite p ure and provided evidence that rather long survival was possible follo wing intoxication in three cases, in two cases supported by hospital t reatment in the final stage. The procedural regimen in cases of suspec ted body-packing is discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.