Aims: Due to the accidental nature of carbon monoxide poisoning, the number of victims of such events may be more than one person and in many cases, the victims have a kin relationship. According to the Iranian civil laws, determining the death time priority is essential for the diagnosis of inheritance, and therefore inquiries should be taken from forensic centers. The aim of this study was to determine the death time priority and its diagnostic criteria in victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Instruments & Methods: This research is a descriptive cross-sectional and retrospective study. In this study, all cases of death due to carbon monoxide poisoning, referred to the forensic medicine centers of Tehran province during 2012-2016 were investigated and the records of deceased in the joint events were separated. Then the information was recorded in the checklist and analyzed by SPSS 19 software.
Findings: Of the 846 deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning in 674 accident, 131 (35.8%) cases had more than one victim. There was some kind of kin relationship between the victims in 65.6% of cases and this relationship was of a first-degree kinship (82.6%). In 23.3% of events involved the victims with a kin relationship, inquire about the death time priority was conducted and in 70.0% of the cases, the results were reported as relative and the highest diagnostic criterion was only age (40.0%) and in 20.0% of cases, the conditions were merely environmental.
Conclusion: It is necessary for forensic examiners to know probable the inquiries about the death time priority in such events and they should pay enough attention in their expert opinions, to the role of individual and environmental factors and their impact on accelerating the process of death.