Histopathological analysis of fuel burns in deceased migrants

Two young migrant women of sub-Saharan origin, aged 19 and 33,tragically lost their lives while attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean on a small boat from Libya to Southern Italy. Their bodies were recovered by an NGO vessel engaged in search and rescue operations.We conducted autopsies and toxicological examinations on both bodies and concluded that the cause of death was consistent with acute hydrocarbon intoxication, due to massive aspiration of gasoline and acute pulmonary oedema. There was no evidence of drowning. Both bodies exhibited multiple skin lesions on face, back, bottom and legs. Macro-scopically these lesions were suspected for ‘fuel burns’, but also compatible with skin dehydration or post-mortem phe-nomena (Figure 1a and b). We carried out microscopic exam-ination on skin samples after general staining procedure with haematoxylin and eosin. We found histopathological changes characterized by delamination of the superficial epidermal lay-ers, exhibiting suprabasal intraepidermal blistering morphology, accompanied by coagulative necrosis of the superficial dermis and skin appendages in areas devoid of epidermal coverage (Figure 2a and b). All these findings are typical for burn-like damage, especially chemical burn-like damage.