A body recovered from the sea has a frothy exudate at the mouth, waterlogging of the lungs, and diatoms in the bone marrow aspirated postmortem. The significance of finding identical diatoms in the bone marrow AND the site of recovery water is:

• A Diatoms in bone marrow indicate the deceased had a chronic silica inhalation disorder
• B Diatoms in bone marrow are always due to laboratory contamination and are inadmissible as evidence
• C Diatoms circulate via the bloodstream during ante-mortem drowning and deposit in protected sites like bone marrow and brain; their presence confirms drowning as cause of death and the species match links death to the recovery location ✓
• D Diatom testing confirms only that the body entered water, not that drowning was the cause of death

Explanation

During ante-mortem drowning, aspiration of water drives diatoms across alveolar membranes into the pulmonary circulation, distributing them throughout the body including bone marrow, brain, kidneys, and liver — sites inaccessible by simple immersion. A cadaver submerged postmortem will have diatoms only in the airways and lung surface, not in bone marrow. Matching diatom species from bone marrow with those from the recovery water confirms the drowning location. Contamination controls must be strict, but matched bone marrow diatoms are accepted forensic evidence in courts.

Reference: The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology (Narayan Reddy), 34th ed.

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Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.