A Study of Thermal Deaths in Rohtak, Haryana

Abstract

Every burn injury recorded in vital Statistics represents a catastrophic injury: catastrophic in the overwhelming insult to the patients, catastrophic in its psychological aspects and catastrophic in cost and suffering to the family involved. A severe burn is the most devastating injury a person can sustain and yet hope to survive. It is a common catastrophe today as burn injury cases are one of the common emergencies admitted in any hospital. As the etiological factors of the burn injuries vary considerably in different communities, careful analysis of the epidemiological features in every community is needed before a sound prevention programme can be planned and implemented. The present study was carried out in the department of Forensic medicine and Toxicology of PGIMS and General Hospital Rohtak, Haryana and total 448 cases were collected for this study purpose. Female victims were most commonly affected as compared to male victims. The majority of deaths 232 (51.8%) occurred in the age group of 20-39 years followed by 119 (26.5%) in the age group of 40-59 years. Married females were most common victim compared to unmarried female victim. The majority of burn deaths were accidental (85.3%) in nature followed by suicidal (8.1%) and homicidal deaths (6.6%)