Head Injury due to Cracker Blast

Abstract

Abstract
Death arising from fireworks is not an uncommon phenomenon
in India. Deaths commonly arise during the manufacturing
process and improper handling of chemicals for
fireworks.
Here, we would like to highlight a rare case in which a
12-year-old child sustained a head injury due to a cracker
blast, which resulted in a depressed fracture over the vault of
her skull. In this paper, we tried to emulate the same pattern
of fracture on a human skull bone experimentally using the
same type of cracker which caused the injury.
This was done to give us an insight as to whether the
cracker was powerful enough to produce a fracture and to
rule out suspicion of blunt force trauma due to a weapon on
the head. The subsequent explosion caused by the blast produced
a distinctly similar pattern of fracture in comparison to
the fracture observed in our case.
The study also highlights the dangers of country-made
crackers handled by children.