Watch: What is the Virtual Autopsy technique used after Raju Srivastava's death?

After celebrated comic actor Raju Srivastava passed away on Wednesday morning (21 September) after more than a month-long treatment at AIIMS, his family was handed his body after a virtual autopsy. What is this form of forensic examination? And what did they find?
Raju Srivastava

Raju Srivastava passed away on Wednesday 21 September in New Delhi

Leaving millions of people heartbroken and their prayers for his speedy recovery unanswered, popular actor Raju Srivastava bid goodbye to this world on Wednesday. His more than a month-long fight for life at New Delhi's premier health and medical sciences institute the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), had finally ended.
The 58-year-old was admitted to AIIMS Hospital in Delhi after suffering a mild heart attack on 10 August. While there was clarity about when and where Raju Srivastava had collapsed (at a gym in South Delhi where he was running on a treadmill) before being rushed to AIIMS, his death was followed up with a post-mortem done using a novel autopsy technique dubbed 'virtual autopsy', said Dr Sudhir Gupta, head of the forensic department at AIIMS where the procedure was done. While no foul play was suspected, it was decided to go ahead with a post-mortem before Srivastava's body was handed over to the family.
What is Virtual Autopsy?
This procedure, which does not involve dissection of the body, takes around 15 to 20 minutes compared to a minimum of three hours in the traditional method. In this highly specialised surgical procedure (also called Virtopsy or the Touch-free method) a thorough examination of the corpse is carried out to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present, according to a 2013 paper titled Virtopsy (virtual autopsy): A new phase in forensic investigation”. In another published research paper titled "Virtopsy: Touch-free autopsy", the following explanation is offered.
  1. The word "autopsy" denotes "to see with own eyes."
  2. Autopsy (postmortem) is a process that includes a thorough examination of a corpse noting everything related to anatomisation, surface wounds, and histological and culture studies. Virtopsy is a term extracted from two words "virtual" and "autopsy."
  3. It employs imaging methods that are routinely used in clinical medicine such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in the field of an autopsy, to find the reason for death.
  4. Virtopsy is a multi-disciplinary technology that combines forensic medicine and pathology, roentgenology, computer graphics, biomechanics, and physics. It is rapidly gaining importance in the field of forensics.
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