[Suicidal shot in the mouth with an unmodified blank cartridge pistol]

In the medicolegal literature reports of suicides with weapons designed for self-defence, especially gas pistols, are rare. We report on a suicide of a 54-year-old woman who fired a fatal shot in her mouth with an unmanipulated blank cartridge pistol, make Röhm RG 8, calibre 8 mm. The autopsy findings (lips and mucosa of the buccal vestibule without injuries, but extensive lesions of the tongue and the middle and rear third of the smooth palate) suggest that the shot was fired - as observed by a witness - with the barrel of the weapon inside the oral cavity. Both macroscopic inspection and histological investigations excluded the possibility that death was caused by an injury of the brain, in particular the brain stem. The immediate cause of death was deep aspiration of chyme with concurrent aspiration of blood.