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Description
Title查潘姚華跳樓自殺身死
Short title潘姚華跳樓自殺案
archiveID189
DateFriday 18 May 1945
Year1945
Author上海特別市警察局南市分局; 上海地方檢察署
Role (author of)Police investigation; reporting of non-natural death; witness interrogation; judicial inquest; medico-legal examination
Series Number/IDShanghai Municipal Archives
Box numberR44-2
File numberR44-2-6013
Number of pages7
Abstract

Dossier concerning Pan Yaohua (潘姚華), a young woman in her early twenties, whose death in Shanghai in July 1945 followed an earlier suicide attempt by jumping from a building. The police non-natural death report identifies her as female and records her death at Guangci Hospital (廣慈醫院).

The police narrative establishes an unusually long chronology between the suicidal act and death. On 18 May 1945, the police were notified by Guangci Hospital that Pan Yaohua had attempted suicide by jumping from a building. She survived the initial fall and remained under hospital treatment for approximately two months. The hospital subsequently notified the police that she had died on 19 July 1945, after treatment for the serious injuries sustained in the fall.

The surviving interrogation material also provides information concerning circumstances associated with the suicide. When questioned about why Pan had taken her own life, the witness referred to her suffering from a pulmonary illness (肺病) and to a condition described in the testimony as 神經不正常. These expressions should be retained as contemporary descriptions rather than translated into a specific modern psychiatric diagnosis. The dossier concludes with the formal judicial and medico-legal examination, which attributes death to the consequences of the injuries sustained in the fall.

Comment

Predominantly handwritten Chinese documents on printed police and judicial forms. The case is distinctive because the suicide attempt and death were separated by approximately two months of hospitalization: Pan Yaohua jumped from a building in May but did not die until 19 July. The surviving file is concerned principally with the later death, the police investigation, and the judicial examination; documentation relating to the original May investigation appears to have existed separately and is referred to in the police narrative.

The interrogation provides a relatively explicit explanation of the circumstances surrounding the suicide, referring both to 肺病 and 神經不正常. These can be catalogued as documented health-related circumstances, while avoiding a definitive causal or psychiatric interpretation. The medico-legal material is also significant because it records a delayed death following a suicide attempt, rather than death occurring immediately at the scene. The exact place from which Pan jumped is not restated clearly enough in the surviving dossier to normalize it in the metadata.

Keywords (en)suicide; suicide by jumping; fall from building; fall injuries; delayed death; prolonged hospitalization; pulmonary illness; lung disease; nervous disorder; mental illness; women; hospital treatment; death investigation; witness testimony; judicial inques
Keywords (fr)suicide; suicide par saut d'un bâtiment; chute d'un bâtiment; blessures dues à une chute; décès différé; hospitalisation prolongée; maladie pulmonaire; maladie des poumons; troubles nerveux; maladie mentale; femmes; traitement hospitalier; enquêt
SubjectSuicide; suicide by jumping; pulmonary illness; nervous/mental condition; prolonged hospitalization; death investigation; forensic examination
Place of eventShanghai 上海
Year of event1945
LanguageChinese
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R44-2-5904.pdf (504.93 ko)

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