Pneumothorax — A rare cause of delayed death in hanging

Abstract

Hanging is one of the commonest methods of committing suicide. In most cases of hanging, death occurs immediately, usually within 3 to 5 minutes and it is due to asphyxia, cerebral anoxia, vagal inhibition, venous congestion, or injury to the spinal cord. However, more number of cases have been reported in various literatures, in which death has occurred after a certain time period or the patients have been survived after initial resuscitative measures and later died after a prolonged period due to the complications such as aspiration, infections, HIE, etc., In this article, we present a case report of a 24-year old female in which she died three days after the incident due to one or more delayed complications including pneumomediastinum and pneumothorax (a rare finding).