Pediatric toxicologic deaths - A 10-year retrospective study

A 10-year retrospective study of pediatric toxicologic deaths was performed at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, SC) from January 1989 to December 1998. During this time, 709 pediatric forensic autopsies w ere performed on children younger than 18 years of age. Eleven deaths were determined to be secondary to toxic exposures (excluding carbon monoxide po isonings secondary to fires). The remaining deaths were reviewed for the pr esence of alcohol or illicit drugs. The II toxicologic deaths were analyzed for age, sex, race, type of toxic exposure, cause and manner of death, loc ation of incident, witness, and, in the younger age group, the primary care giver at the time of exposure. The deaths had a bimodal age distribution (6 deaths in victims ages 15 to 17 and 5 deaths in victims ages 4 or younger) , involving a wide range of toxins. The teenage group was composed of five males and one female, all white. The preschool group had three females and three males, all black. The manner of death ranged from accidental to suici dal to homicidal. In addition, in eight neonatal and fetal deaths, the vict ims tested positive for maternal cocaine use, and five of these victims tes ted positive for cocaine or benzoylecgonine. However, the cause of death wa s not stated to be cocaine in any of these neonatal and fetal cases.