This is a little quiz for you. In one of the ERs where I have worked it fell to the ER doc to pronounce death for most of the 'natural causes' deaths in our area. In one case I pronounced a person dead who looked a lot like the picture above. Now, aside from dearly wishing the Blue Man Group dead to a man... (perhaps mauled by very hungry out of work tigers?), what would it tell you, say, MS1, if this is what your patient looked like. And no, this person did not die of met-hemoglobinemia. Oh by the way, I'm crazy 'bout Elvis.
Did he die and fall over with his head lower than the body causing the lividity to pool in the head? Was he trying to do those hanging situps or something and blow an aneurysm or have an MI?
ReplyDeleteI've also heard that saddle PEs can cause a demarcating line of cyanosis at mid-chest level, but that would be more blue than the purple in the picture.
Huffin Paint...
ReplyDeleteThorazine. And lots of it.
ReplyDeleteElvis???
ReplyDeletehmm 1977 was too soon for the Hiv-ie...
and I'm just projecting, cause my Mom & Dad were big Elvis fans, and gave me shit for playin my Queen and David Bowie 33.3's on there fabulously expensive state of the art 1972 stereo system...
CO poisoning? like I'd consider if my College football team went 6-7, losing to a team I can't even remember in a bowl nobody went to, instead of WINNING!!! like the 2011 BCS CHAMPION AUBURN TIGERS
or maybe Cyanide??
OH ITS A TRICK QUESTION!!!
cause Elvis ain't dead, just lyin low for that 2027, 50 year aniversary comeback tour...
just like Jim Morrison, who'll return in 2021...
just like Freddie Mercury....
naw, I'm pretty sure he's dead.
OK, I don't know...
Frank
Colloidal silver poisoning?
ReplyDeleteshit. pimped through the internet.
ReplyDeleteyou said "natural causes," so I'm going to not go into overdose-type causes (like Anon's Thorazine guess).
i've gotta think about this....a super-purple guy might tell me either some sort of massive bleed (purpura? vasculitis?) or some sort of allergic reaction.
Because I'm...well...an MS-1, I'm going to rattle off a series of fairly wild guesses:
1) Cavernous Hemagioma
2) Some sort of diffuse version of Sturge-Weber Syndrome
3) freaky vinyl suit sex death
...but maybe I'm taking the picture a bit too literally? i'm going to think about this for a few hours instead of paying attention in class.
Thanks!
-MS1
but..yea...J'd argyria diagnosis seems pretty accurate...
ReplyDelete-MS1
But wouldn't argyria just turn you blue and not kill you?
ReplyDelete--MS1
dear nate,
ReplyDeletewell done.... exactly right. never seen it before. most folks die on their backs or sides, not lying on stomachs and especially not face first with head at lowest point.... bizarre looking dependent lividity.
huffing is a good guess... but it usually doesn't kill people... just turns them into this nick nolte look alike and makes them more stupid than usual.
frank, elvis may have had dependent lividity of the face... not sure... but the dawgs beat up on auburn on the hardwood..... *yawn*
j, nice guess, but argyria is more of a dermatologic issue than a death issue... i mean i'm sure there's a lethal dose... just don't know what it is...
dear ms1, i like number 3. and argyria makes you look like you stood in a smoking machine for fifty years....
Damn, I was going to vote "drowned in a vat of blueberry juice"
ReplyDeleteGood stuff. Working in EMS, we get a lot of people with purple asses post-mortem...should have made the connection.
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch for these cases...one of the few things that keeps me truckin' through Guyton's. Also, that Markovchovik book has been great!
--MS1
i've met the good dr markovchick on more than one occasion... looks like a cross between david crosby and yoda. nice guy.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was talking with our neighbor (the county sheriff) a few days ago, and he said he had to go to an accident scene where a tree fell on a guy. Said at first glance, he thought the victim was black ... but then realized the impact of the tree was responsible for the face discoloration.
ReplyDeleteCT's of dead babies, post mortem lividity, whats next?
ReplyDeleteoh yeah, the inevitable retained tampon...
I'd rather watch 2011 BCS CHAMPION AUBURN TIGERS basketball...
Frank
Can we bring panda bear back please
ReplyDeleteDear Pudortu,
ReplyDeleteYou got a mouse in your pocket? Panda has dropped off the map and is welcome back at any time. In the meantime go fellate yourself, but not to the point of orgasm.
If I could fellate myself I'd never leave the house...
ReplyDeleteUmmm I mean...
never mind
Pretty sure you guys would like the Metalocalypse episode where they talk about that..
ReplyDeleteHey 911,
ReplyDeleteJust for shits and giggles, you gotta go read Pudortu's blog. Which MDOD member hands out the coveted DLF designation? Was it you, or OF?
-SCRN
dear scrn,
ReplyDeleteouch. why did you want to hurt me like that?
pain.
Hey, I thought you would want to get to know a future colleague. What?!
ReplyDelete-SCRN
SCRN... open wound... You have salt... You are cruel indeed... Perhaps an imposter? one can only hope.
ReplyDeletethere is no lethal dose of silver...unless you fall into a molten vat of it...or are a werewolf
ReplyDeletedeat toxdoc....
ReplyDeletewell said. *golf clap*