Prevalence of homicide-suicides is difficult to determine in Greece due to the lack of a national tracking system. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of the homicide-suicide incidents in Greece over the past 13 years, and to determine the circumstances under which they occurred, as well as the characteristics of perpetrators and victims. Two Internet search engines (google and yahoo), as well as the search engine of the major national news websites, were surveyed to identify the number of homicide-suicide cases that occurred in Greece from January 2008 to December 2020. Over the study period, 36 homicide-suicide incidents occurred in Greece, resulting in 36 suicides and 41 homicides. The above incidents reflect an annual homicide-suicide rate of 0.02 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Most perpetrators were male (88.9%), whereas most victims were female (80.6%). Spousal-consortial cases accounted for 52.7% and familial cases for 41.7% of the total number of incidents. The use of firearms (mostly shotgun) was the most common method of homicide and suicide (58.3% and 63.9%, respectively). Women killed only their children, while men committed homicide and suicide mainly in the context of a former or current intimate partnership with the victim. Our results are in line with international homicide-suicide data. The establishment of a national surveillance system for homicides-suicides would be of paramount importance as it would facilitate accurate recording, identification of risk factors and characteristics of potential victims and perpetrators and it could ultimately be an aid to the prevention of such tragic events.

We report the case of a 64-year-old male who died suddenly short after his admission to hospital because of strong chest pain and before any clinical diagnosis was established. His medical history included coronary disease with coronary by-pass surgery at the age of 40 years old, uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and elevated levels of cholesterol. The autopsy revealed quite a rare case of Stanford A aortic dissection with extension to the common and internal carotid arteries; the subclavian, axillary, brachial, and radial arteries; three coronary arteries; the superior mesenteric artery; and the iliac arteries. There was no histological evidence of aortitis or connective tissue disease. The death did not result from the rupture of the aortic dissection, but from myocardial ischemia due to coronary occlusion in combination with hemodynamic disturbance from stress caused by the extended aortic dissection.

Background: There is an increasing awareness that a child’s separation from one parent after the divorce places the child’s development and well-being at risk. The aim of this study was to determine how Greek courts deal with the cases of parental prevention of communication with their children and which factors affect the judicial decisions. Methods: The Greek legal databases “NOMOS” and “Isokratis” were searched, and associations between judicial decisions, as well as communication prevention ways, and several parameters, were assessed. Results/Conclusions: A total of 50 parental communication prevention law cases were retrieved for the time period from 1992 to 2019. Results showed that mothers were more frequently alleged to interfere with father–child communication. Both direct and indirect methods of interfering with communication were followed. In cases of a single child, the method of indirect interference was more frequently followed. Judicial decisions were unaffected by the age and gender of the child, the gender of the parent preventing the communication, the number of children, the gender of the child and whether the child is the same gender as the preventing or prevented parent, the way of prevention, and the reference to parental alienation.

Introduction. Ground-level falls have emerged as one of the major causes of unintentional fatal injury in several developed countries. As older age is accompanied by deterioration on various systems and abilities of the human body, the elderly are known to be particularly vulnerable to fatal ground-level falls.Methods. Forty-three cases of fatal accidental ground-level falls, which occurred in the region of East Attica, were assigned to our Department during the years 2011-2015. Epidemiological data of the victims, the circumstances of the falls and the type/characteristics of the injuries were recorded.Results. Forty-three cases of fatal ground-level falls involving 24 male victims (55.8%) and 19 female victims (44.2%). Their ages ranged between 45 and 96 years old with the vast majority (38 cases-88.4%) of the victims being >65 years old. Almost half of the fatal ground-level fall cases (21 cases) took place inside or near the victims’ residence, 11 occurred in public places, 1 in another residence, 1 in the victim’s workplace and in 6 cases the place of the fall was unknown. Twenty-two of the fallers (57.9%) died within the first 24h after the fall while the rest died 2-45 days post-injury. Fatal injuries involved mainly the head with (14 cases) or without (15 cases) cranial bone fracture. In some cases, head trauma was accompanied with severe neck (3 cases), thoracolumbar spine (1 case) or pelvic (1 case) trauma. Notably, 5 people died due to post-traumatic complications during their hospitalization. Conclusion. Elderly people seem to be prone to fatal accidental ground-level falls occurring mostly inside their residence or in the surroundings. Head and neck are highlighted as the main body regions seriously injured after a ground-level fall