Citation

Matteo S, Marina S, Donata F, Rossella S. Med. Leg. J. 2020; 88(1): 44-47.

Affiliation

Legal Medicine, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University -- Hospital of Padova, Via Falloppio 50, 35121 Padua, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Medico-Legal Society, Publisher SAGE Publications)

DOI

10.1177/0025817220902395

PMID

32191572

Abstract

We present the case of a 60-year-old male, with a long history of epilepsy, who was discovered submerged and unconscious in a small thermal whirlpool bath. The circumstances were forensically reviewed to include examination of clinical data and an autopsy with toxicological analysis. The conclusion was that “warm” hydro-therapy had contributed more than “hot” mud-therapy to the onset of epilepsy which led to accidental drowning, notwithstanding the deceased’s treatment with the long-lasting, poly-drug antiepileptic therapy. Further, we analysed the Italian medical indications of wellness centres for patients with epilepsy or other diseases.

Keywords Well-controlled epilepsy, Italy, thermal mud and SPA treatment, seizure, drowning in thermal pool

Language: en

Keywords

Italy; Well-controlled epilepsy; drowning in thermal pool; seizure; thermal mud and SPA treatment