Hypothermia and undressing associated with non-fatal bromazepam intoxication

K Michaud1, N Romain, C Giroud

  • 1Institut universitaire de médecine légale, Rue du Bugnon 21, CH-1005 Lausanne, Switzerland. katarzyna.michaud@inst.hospvd.ch

A 42-year-old woman with a history of depression was found unconscious, lying near her car in an early autumn morning. The lower part of her body was undressed and there were multiple purple spots and excoriations on the body suggesting at first a sexual assault. On admission to the intensive care unit, she presented a hypothermia with a central temperature of 28.4 degrees C. The biological samples obtained at the hospital were analysed. Blood concentration of bromazepam was 7.7 mg/l, which is above the highest level reported till now in a case of fatal intoxication.

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