Can blunt injuries to torso cause death?

Posted on Tue, 19 May 2015

Question: My 36 year old son was killed two months ago when his ATV FELL ON TOP OF HIM. Cause of death was listed as positional asphyxia due to blunt/crushing injuries of torso. I thought that meant the ATV crushed his aorta but I am not sure as they said torso. His death was fairly immediate but he had no bleeding or bruises on his chest. Could you help me understand this a little better please?

Answered by Dr. Divakara (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Torso means Trunk

Detailed Answer:
HI

Greetings from Dr.Divakara.P
Thanks for choosing HealthcareMagic.

Literal meaning of Torso means Trunk of the body . Basically it involves chest and back of the body.

Blunt/crushing injuries to torso may not cause any external injuries and may cause serious internal injuries. In your son's case due to the fall of ATV , it might have caused internal injury like Rib fracture. Following rib fracture it causes rupture of lungs causing air leakage into the chest causing Asphyxia.

Asphyxia means something that is causing difficulty for the lungs to get air ( Oxygen ) Due to air leakage it causes external compression on the lungs which prevents entry of oxygen while breathing thus leading to choking and death.

Hope this information was useful to you.
Any further clarification feel free to ask .

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar