ABSTRACT

Deaths by lightning injury were seen among people working in open areas like sailors and farmers in the past, but today this kind of death is seen among those engaging in outdoor sports. Lightning injuries can range from no pathological findings to traumatic signs or death. To determine that a person has died due to lightning injury, internal and external examinations of the body and a detailed crime scene investigation are required. Our case involved a 62-year-old man, engaged in farming, who was found dead on open land. Findings from the examination of the body (mud on the face and hands; singed hair on the chest, around the nipples, in the pubic area, and on the lower left leg; burns on the chest and abdomen), the histopatologic fin-dings in accordance with the effect of heat, the absence of other agents in the toxicologic analysis, and the autopsy all support death by lightning injury. The case is worth presenting because of the presence of interesting findings to explain the cause of death and because it is a rarely seen cause of death.