Citation

Acland PR, Heaver C. Med. Sci. Law 2008; 48(3): 251-255.

Affiliation

peter_acland@msn.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, British Academy of Forensic Sciences, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

18754214

Abstract

Retrograde amnesia is a recognised neurological complication of carbon monoxide poisoning. This article describes the case of a female found dead in her bath where initial post-mortem findings and the surrounding circumstances raised strong suspicions of homicide, especially when there was contradictory evidence from her husband who was the only other person present. He was later diagnosed as having retrograde amnesia between his two visits to the bathroom to attend to his wife which caused him to merge them into one event, thus arousing suspicions of foul play. The discussion explores the current clinical views on non-fatal carbon monoxide poisoning as well as problems of interpretation of information derived from case work.

Language: en