Forensic medicine in the Rivers State of Nigeria: experience in four rural general hospitals

A retrospective study of 375 consecutive medicolegal cases seen in four peripheral general hospitals in the Rivers State of Nigeria over a five-year period (March 1984 to February 1989) was undertaken. The most common indications for forensic medical consultation were assaults (78.6%) using clubs, sticks, fists and machetes as weapons, road traffic accidents (9.1%) and sexual offences (7.7%). The proportions of accidental deaths (4.3%), homicidal deaths (2.9%), sudden natural deaths (0.5%), maternal deaths (0.5%) and suicidal deaths (0.3%) were much lower. The male-to-female ratio was 1.4 to 1. The patients' ages ranged from 10 months to 75 years, with a mean of 31.6 years. Twenty-three cases (6.1%) were children, while the remaining 352 cases (93.9%) were adults. The study showed that for those cases which do come to the pathologist's attention, forensic personnel and laboratory services are inadequate in the peripheral parts of Nigeria. The study also highlighted the possible range of medicolegal problems of which the medical practitioner should be aware, even if he is practising in the rural non-urbanized areas of Nigeria. The study shows that not all deaths are registered in Nigeria.