[A case of suicidal chloroform poisoning]

A 33-year-old man who had suffered from phobia and depressions was found dead in his kitchen. He was entirely covered by plastic waste disposal bags stuck together. The corpse was lying flat on his stomach with his face on a towel soaked with chloroform. Within the plastic cover, on either side of the body's head, there was located a can half way filled with chloroform. Autopsy revealed cauterized lips and mucous membranes of the mouth. The morphological findings of the inner organs were unspecific. For toxicological analyses, air samples from the pleural cavities of the corpse were taken by way of charcoal tubes and a microprocessor aided pump. The solvents adsorbed on the charcoal were desorbed with benzyl alcohol and analyzed by gas chromatography according to standard procedures. The quantification of the chloroform levels of the body fluids and the tissue samples of the corpse was performed by extraction with pentane followed by addition of trichloroethylene as internal standard and consecutive gas chromatographic analysis. The results of the toxicological analyses confirmed the diagnosis of a fatal chloroform intoxication.