Chapter 3 first case anatomy
The first time I stood in front of an open-air autopsy room, facing a fresh corpse, I had just passed my 18th birthday.
Brother Shengbing, who was the main knife, had a serious expression and meticulous movements, and slowly pulled the body bag away. As I watched intently from the side, my heart beat faster and faster.
The pounding of my heartbeat seemed to instantly bring me back to the little boy who was full of curiosity and longing.
"Don't look at your father's air, he has suffered a lot!"
Waiting for my dad to go out when I was a child was the most anticipated moment of my day.Watching him match the shiny pistol and fasten every button on the police uniform, the air was suddenly filled with excitement.My dad kissed me on the cheek. As an expert in trace inspection, he certainly hoped that his little boy would follow his father's footsteps, but my mother didn't think so.
After being a family member of a policeman all her life, my mother is not willing to let her son go to work. In her opinion, being a doctor is the best way out. She herself works as the head nurse in the hospital. What's more, being a doctor can save lives and heal the wounded, what can't compare to the police!
Doctor or police?The two never agreed.I didn't want to offend anyone, so I had to swing around. For a while, I decided to be a policeman, and for a while, I thought that being a doctor would be good.In this way, the police doctor, the police doctor, staggered through high school for three years. When it was time to fill out the application form, I discovered a new word: forensic medicine.
Isn't this the best of both worlds!
Although my mother was still reluctant, with the support of my father, I finally successfully filled out my first choice.
That was in 1998, and the major of forensic medicine was completely unpopular among the unpopular ones, and there were only 300 graduates in the country every year.I was admitted to the Department of Forensic Medicine of Wannan Medical College with a score 30 points higher than the general undergraduate line (actually not enough for the key line).Of the 40 students in the class, I was the only one who was the first choice, and the other students got into this major only after being transferred.So, whether curious or annoyed, the 40 freshmen of forensic medicine started a completely strange new life.
Students who study medicine know that medical courses are not easy at the beginning, especially systematic anatomy, which is a course like a nightmare, and its failure rate is completely appalling.I was lucky enough to pass the exam. As soon as the summer vacation came, my dad enthusiastically helped me find an internship opportunity, and asked me to go to the forensic department of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Public Security Bureau in my hometown to gain some experience.Thinking that the exciting scenes in the TV series will come true, I am so excited that I count down every day, and I can't wait for the day of departure to come sooner.
In the first few days to the forensic department, nothing happened.
No wonder, in a southern city like my hometown, there are very few murders.Brother Shengbing was a few years older than me, but he was already the pillar of the forensic department, and he naturally became my first teacher. Even after he stopped working in the forensic profession, I always admired him.
At that time, I followed him all day long, walking around like a little follower.At that time, what I did most every day was the injury appraisal. Although I took it very seriously, my knowledge was limited and I was always at a loss.The days passed unhurriedly, until one day, my phone rang suddenly and hurriedly.
"Forensic clinic." I picked up the phone and reported my home.
"I'm Xiao Li from the Serious Crime Squad. There was a gang fight on Shicheng Road. A man died. Please come and see the scene." The voice on the other end of the phone was full of fatigue.
"Murder?" I was momentarily at a loss.
Brother Shengbing snatched the phone: "What's going on? Do you have a clue?"
I later learned that the so-called "do you have a clue" refers to whether the suspect is clear or not. If the suspect is clear, the pressure on the forensic doctor will be very small, as long as some basic work is done.But if there is no clue, the forensic doctor needs to analyze and reason a lot, and the on-site investigation and autopsy will take twice as long.
"It's just a fight, I've caught several of them, and the rest are chasing after them, unable to escape."
"Okay, I'll be there right away." Brother Shengbing let out a long sigh of relief.
We quickly boarded the police car marked "Criminal Scene Investigation". The siren blared along the way, and I felt a sense of excitement in my heart for no reason.
But the scene was very peaceful, much calmer than expected.
A cordon was stretched indiscriminately beside the road, and passers-by were bustling with spectators.Looking from a distance, there was nothing in the middle of the warning belt, and I really didn't know what the group of people were watching.It wasn't until I got closer that I saw a pool of blood on the enclosed ground, and around the blood pool, some dripping blood stains and a small amount of spattering blood stains could be seen.Brother Sheng Bing took out the investigation box and took a part of each of the blood pool, splattered bloodstain and dripping bloodstain for DNA testing.This was very advanced at the time, because DNA testing had just started to be used at that time, and the original electrophoresis method was used, and the process was very complicated, so this kind of high technology was generally not used, especially if the criminal suspect had already been identified. case.
The scene was quickly over, and we got back into the car.
"Brother Shengbing, where are we going?"
"The funeral home. The deceased died on the way to the hospital, and now the body has been taken to the funeral home."
"Funeral...funeral home?" Although I had been mentally prepared for the autopsy sooner or later, I was still a little nervous, no, it was mixed with excited nervousness, "Didn't it mean that the case has been solved? Haven’t they all been arrested? Does it still need us to go for an autopsy?”
"How can it be useless?" Brother Shengbing looked at me and smiled, "As long as it is a criminal case, an autopsy is required. This is the basic work, and it is also an important step to ensure the accurate handling of the case and improve the chain of evidence."
Without even thinking about it, I continued, "That is to say, all we have to do is useless work?"
Brother Shengbing smiled, and didn't continue to entangle with me on this issue: "Go and have a look, first look, next time you can do it yourself. As for the investigation department saying that the case has been solved, that's not necessarily true. If you don't believe me, just look."
When I heard that I will be allowed to go to the dissecting table next time, I was excited and drummed. Can I do it without even touching a scalpel?Anyway, this time I at least have to see clearly.
Funeral parlors are generally far away from urban areas, so I took advantage of the car time to pick up the preliminary investigation materials of the case and flip through them.
During the gang fight, 18-year-old participant Rao Bo was stabbed several times, fell to the ground on the spot, and died on the way to the hospital.
"What a coincidence, this person has the same name as one of my elementary school classmates, ha ha." Although I said it lightly, I secretly had an ominous premonition. After all, this surname, this name, and this age...
Uneasy all the way.Soon, the police car drove into the gate of the archway with the words "cemetery".
Although it was a hot summer, as soon as I entered the dissecting room, there was a burst of cold air on my back.
In fact, there was no standardized dissection room at that time. At most, there was a small room with a dissecting table built with bricks in the center of the room, and an exhaust fan was installed on the window.This is considered a good condition.At least in winter, there is no need to endure the cold wind for dissection in the house, but in summer, the corpse is easy to rot, and the rotten gas cannot be emitted, so the dissection room becomes a gas room.Therefore, the anatomy room at that time was seasonal.
There was a white body bag on the stage, which looked particularly eerie in the darkened dissection room.
"Drag it out, the air here is not good." Brother Shengbing said while dragging a mobile corpse bed.The two forensic doctors put on gloves, lifted the corpse with ease, and carried it onto the mobile corpse bed.As I watched, I couldn't help feeling that once a person lost his breath, he seemed to become an object.
They pushed the body to the corridor behind the cremation room, which, I think, was their "open-air autopsy room".In fact, open-air dissection is very unscientific, but due to limited conditions, even today, more than ten years later, open-air dissection can only be used in many places.
I followed behind dumbly, but my heart gradually became flustered.Is this Rao Bo the one I know?
Once the corpse bed is in place, Brother Shengbing's work is about to begin.With a serious expression and meticulous movements, he slowly pulled the body bag away.My heart beat faster and faster. Over the past 18 years, I have been looking forward to witnessing the scene like my father countless times, to bring justice, but my first lesson came so fiercely and cruelly:
A pale, stiff but familiar face slowly emerged from the body bag.
a bolt from the blue!In an instant, the smell of blood and grief surged like a tsunami, making me unable to breathe. Memories of my youth flooded my throat and blurred my eyes.
How could it not be recognized?Even if we haven't met each other for seven or eight years, the marks on his eyebrows and eyes will not lie, yes, he is the Rao Bo I know...
This is the first time I saw an anatomy, and the one who dissected was my elementary school deskmate?This must be my hallucination, how could God play such a cruel joke on me?
Brother Shengbing may have noticed my strangeness: "Why, can't take it anymore? I can't stand a corpse, but I can't be a forensic doctor!"
I haven't adjusted my emotions yet: "No, it's not... Rao Bo...he's my classmate."
"Ah, is it?" Brother Shengbing also showed surprise, "Then, why don't you go back first?"
I was stunned for 10 seconds, but still made a decision: "I won't go, I'll see." If I can't pass this test, what kind of forensic doctor should I be?
Brother Shengbing gave me a suspicious look: "Okay, just take a look, just treat it as exercise. If you can't take it anymore, go to the car, it's okay."
"I can bear it." My whole body was numb, but I didn't know where the courage came from. I still stood there, staring at the dissecting table motionless.
The body bag was finally removed completely.My former deskmate and playmate were lying straight in front of me, with one arm half-raised due to stiffness, eyes slightly open, as if they were still looking at something, nothing like what the book said, people It's like falling asleep when you die.The white T-shirt on his body was completely stained red with blood, and his trousers were soaked from the waist to the crotch. When he turned the clothes, blood was still slowly gushing out from the tear.Brother Shengbing and his partner Ze Sheng carefully checked the clothes of the deceased, discussing something while watching, while Brother Xiao Wang nervously took notes.But what they were saying, I didn't hear at all, I stared at the corpse, my mind went blank.
In an instant, Rao Bo's clothes were all stripped off, revealing a tattoo on his body that I had never seen before, and the tattoo had been soaked and blurred with blood.I closed my eyes slightly, and couldn't bear to look down, but I still vaguely saw the fat and muscles on his chest and abdomen.It seems that it was really hurt before.
Brother Shengbing performed the surgery. He stood on the right side of the corpse in a supine position, holding a ruler, and measuring the wounds one by one.I clearly heard the numbers reported by Brother Shengbing: Rao Bo was stabbed 7 times, including 3 stabs in the chest and 4 stabs in the abdomen. The 7 wounds were all blunt and sharp, and the length of the wound was 3 to 4 centimeters. The way of injury was very clear—he was stabbed by a single-edged sharp instrument with a blade width of about 4 centimeters.
"Brother Shengbing, do we still need an autopsy? The cause of death should be clear, right?" Seeing that Brother Shengbing was preparing for the autopsy, I couldn't bear it.
"Of course it needs to be dissected, otherwise do you know which organ he was injured in? Do you know which knife is fatal?"
"Does this... make sense?"
"Hehe, whether it makes sense or not, you will know later."
The knife peeled off.Brother Shengbing deftly cut his knife from the bottom of the neck to the top of the pubic symphysis.The subcutaneous tissue was immediately exposed, yellow and red, very eye-catching.
"Cut open the chest and abdomen in one word, which is the habit of forensic doctors in our country. The neck dissection will be performed later, and the chest and abdomen will be dissected first. This is equivalent to bloodletting, which can prevent the blood vessels from being cut during the neck dissection, causing blood to infiltrate the muscle tissue. That's the case. Otherwise, it is impossible to judge whether it is muscle bleeding or blood staining the muscle tissue, and it is also impossible to determine whether the neck has been subjected to external violence. The neck is a key part, so pay attention." Brother Shengbing explained while separating the muscle tissue of the chest , "The muscle to separate the chest should be close to the ribs, don't use a small knife like a surgeon, we don't have so much time. One knife is one knife, the range should be wide, the knife should be accurate, the knife surface should be parallel, and the ribs should not be cut , let alone piercing the chest cavity.”
Seeing Rao Bo's chest being opened little by little, my nerves were stretched to the limit, and I could only resist the urge to vomit.
Soon, the peritoneum was also opened, and the inflated intestines gushed out with a pop.Brother Shengbing carefully examined the abdominal cavity of the deceased, and shook his head: "There were four stab wounds in the stomach, none of the organs or blood vessels were injured, and even the intestines were not broken. The deceased should have been saved!"
Then he deftly used a scalpel to cut along the junction of costal cartilage and ribs, lifted the sternum, and separated it along the back of the sternum. The sound of tissue separation echoed in the quiet corridor.
When Rao Bo's chest was opened, I couldn't take it anymore, so I had to leave the operating table and stand far away.Brother Shengbing said: "It's a coincidence that only one knife entered the chest cavity and pierced the aortic arch. The remaining two knifes resisted the ribs and did not enter the chest cavity. This child is really unlucky. The knife is a little crooked. It’s probably a pneumothorax.” When I looked back, I found that Rao Bo’s charred lungs had been taken out of his body, and I suddenly had the urge to vomit again.
"Brother Shengbing, does he have a heavy cigarette addiction, so..."
"Did you say that the back of the lungs is black? Hehe, no, it's a corpse spot. After a person dies, the blood is deposited downward due to gravity, so it feels a little darker than the tissue above it."
"Have you determined the cause of death?"
"Yes, he was hit seven times, but only one was fatal, the one on the chest," Brother Shengbing said while lifting up the pectoralis major muscle on the left side of the deceased, pointing to the wound on the skin, "This knife pierced the wound. The aorta caused massive blood loss and death.” After speaking, he began to use a spoon to scoop out the blood from the chest cavity and put it in a container.
"Pleural hemorrhage is 1,500 milliliters." Brother Shengbing said, "Including the blood flowing out of the body, it is enough to cause death. Coupled with the phenomenon of corpses such as light spots on the corpse, the cause of death is very clear."
Immediately afterwards, Brother Shengbing dissected Rao Bo's neck and head, and found no obvious abnormalities.At that time, electric craniotomy saws were rare, and forensic doctors used a small hacksaw to saw back and forth until the skull was sawed open. I still fear the smell of bone chips.
Just finished stitching, ready to call it a day, I saw investigator Xiao Li trotting all the way over.
"How is it? Is there any progress in the interrogation?" Brother Shengbing was very concerned about the interrogation.
"Don't mention it," Xiao Li wiped his sweat, "Three people held knives, and they all fixed the evidence. But the appearance of the knives of the three people is basically the same. None of them admitted that they stabbed the chest, and they all said that they stabbed the stomach. "
Today's hooligans also know that the probability of stabbing someone in the stomach is much lower than that of stabbing someone in the chest.
"Isn't that nonsense? How do you explain the three swords in the chest?" Brother Shengbing frowned.
Xiao Li spread his hands, expressing his helplessness.
"Did you bring the knife?" Brother Shengbing stared at the wound on the corpse. After a while, his eyes suddenly lit up. "Do you know who held the knife?"
"No problem, the evidence is fixed."
Brother Shengbing took a closer look at the wound, then picked up three transparent evidence bags containing three knives one by one, looked at the blades carefully, smiled slightly, took out one of the daggers with a red handle and said: "Fatal! The wound was stabbed by this knife."
I suddenly felt amazing: "Why? Can you tell the difference? The three knives all look the same!"
"The shape is the same, but if you take a closer look at the seven knife wounds on the corpse, they seem to be basically the same shape. A rough analysis is that it was formed by a murder weapon. However, if you look closely, there is a hole in the wall of the fatal wound. The skin flap, can you see it?"
Everyone nodded together.
"Why don't other wounds have skin flaps, but this one has a skin flap? The wound wall is formed by the side of the knife, and the knife surface is basically smooth, so it shouldn't form a skin flap. Then it won't be the knife surface that forms the skin flap." , it will not be the blade, only the protrusion on the blade, such as the curling blade."
"Oh! That's right!" Everyone suddenly realized, and rushed to look at the three knives.Sure enough, the dagger with the red hilt was curved.
"If the material of the knife is not very good, it is easy to form the curling edge of the blade after it is inserted into the ribs, and the wound wall will have a flap. Therefore, I suspect that the three chest knives , At least two stabs were stabbed with this knife. Maybe this knife was originally with a curly blade, and the assailant stabbed it twice; Curling blade. However, it is certain that the fatal wound was caused by this knife."
"With your analysis and deduction, we can rest assured." Xiao Li ran away happily.
I stood aside.Brother Shengbing looked at me and said, "How about it, didn't you just say that the forensic work and autopsy work are not important in this kind of case where the suspect has been identified?"
I came back to my senses and respected Brother Shengbing: "I really didn't expect that there would be problems in the original case that was firmly established. These problems still need us to solve. I really underestimated medicine before."
Ze Sheng's forensic doctor also said on the side: "Yes, such an inference has clearly identified the person directly related to the death of the deceased among the multiple actors involved in the fight. This is the key evidence for the conviction and sentencing of the case. The corpse will not say It's a lie."
On the way back, although I hadn't gotten over the grief of my classmate being killed, I felt an indescribable feeling in addition to the grief.This is the first time I have personally witnessed the key role of forensic science. Forensic science is not only as simple as providing clues for investigation and evidence for trial. If it were not for today's anatomical analysis, we would not be able to find the murderer who is really responsible for the dead. And the other two suspects may be wronged because of this...
It was an extraordinary day for me.I finally made up my mind to become a good forensic doctor.
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