Iatrogenic tracheal laceration causing asphyxia

Endotracheal intubation is a simple, rapid, and safe technique that is being used as a standard procedure for airway management. However, airway injury during endotracheal intubation could be a significant source of morbidity or even mortality for patients and a source of liability for physicians as well. We report an unusual case of fatal tracheal occlusion by intraluminal blood clot complicating endotracheal intubation. The patient, a 62-year-old woman, with renovascular hypertension and incipient renal failure was scheduled for renal autotransplantation. The surgery was uneventful but the postoperative course was complicated with a lethal airway obstruction. At autopsy a linear longitudinal tracheal laceration was identified with an intraluminal blood clot obstructing the tracheal lumen. Tracheal laceration as a cause of death is a rare and potentially fatal complication of endotracheal intubation with intratracheal bleeding, clot formation, tracheal occlusion, and subsequent asphyxia.     

Towards an integrated information society policy in South Africa: an overview of political rhetoric and policy initiatives 1994–2000

Abstract

South Africa is considered one of the few developing countries that has fully embraced the concept of information society and has formulated and implemented policy inititives in order to change society accordingly. By 1995 the theme of the information society started to surface regularly in political discourse and policy documents. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and access to ICTs started to have prominence both in policy formulation and implementation. Although there was much talk about a Green Paper/White Paper process on the information society during 1996 and the beginning of 1997, such a policy process never materialised. To date, there is no document defining the government's view of the information society, no policy document outlining an integrated strategy to arrive there and no government department officially responsible for the coordination of policy initiatives. This article sets out to analyse the notion of the information society in South Africa and to analyse the broad evolution of South Africa's information society policy between 1994 and 2000.     

Entrapment Through the Lens of the Actio Libera in Causa

The entrapment defense is a puzzle of long standing. One the one hand, we are offended by the government’s subjecting someone vulnerable to extreme temptation. It seems like something anyone might fall prey to. On the other hand, it is hard to explain why someone who actually commits, or attempts a crime, and who would be liable if anyone other than the government had tempted him, should escape punishment. His blameworthiness seems the same. This essay seeks to illuminate this puzzle by showing how it parallels the long-standing debate surrounding the criminal law problem of the actio libera in causa—situations in which someone seeks to escape liability by contriving to put a certain defense in place, such as provoking his victim into attacking him, so that he can then kill him in self-defense. The parallels between the two problems do not serve to resolve either, but make them appear in a rather different light.