If someone died of hypothermia (not actual freezing), could a pathologist detect that as the cause of death?
I can’t remember where, but recently such a discussion came up, but I believe that when the body gets cold, there is protein destruction that damages the kidneys. But I am not a pathologist! But I did tread about this in the last few weeks. Something for you to Google.
Trying out my Google-Fu…
There seem to be some biochemically distinct markers in a hypothermia death. I have no idea whether a pathologist would routinely test for these or pick it up as the cause of death if it was not otherwise suspected.
And there is a chapter in this textbook focusing on pathology of hypothermia (complete with photos) that make it seem to this layman that there are some telling signs that might make a pathologist consider such a COD. The abstract for the relevant chapter ends with “[t]ypical morphological findings can be found in two thirds of all cases.”