Suicide by Band Saw

An unusual suicide attempt using a circular saw

“…Clark et al [2] reported the case of a 37-year-old white schizophrenic male patient who sustained a fatal self-inflicted neck injury from a band saw, while engaged in occupational therapy. H~irtel et al [5] reported 2 cases of suicide with band saws by workers in carpenter's workshops.…”

“…Some cases of suicides with power tools have been described, especially with band saws and chain saws [2,5,8,9]. Nevertheless, they are rare and seldom reported in the literature [2,7].…”

A unique case of electric circular saw suicide with injuries to the chest and abdomen

“…The literature shows that nearly all suicides with power operated saws involve either the head or inTRoDuCTion Suicidal deaths utilising electrical power saws are exceedingly rare with 20 cases having been reported in the English and German literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Suicide by a circular saw

“…Although an individual committing suicide with a power saw, such as a chain saw [1][2][3], band saw [4,5], and circular saw [5][6][7] is rare, in the forensic literature cases of suicide by a chain saw have been reported and the autopsy findings described in detail [1][2][3]. However, either suicide or attempted suicide by a circular saw has only been described in four cases, as shown in Table 1 in the English medical literature [5][6][7].…”

“…A person committing suicide with an electric saw is rare, and only a few such cases have been reported in the literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Generally, suicidal self-infliction by such power tools is associated with psychiatric disease and alcohol/drug abuse, and most of the decedents are male.…”