Krivonischenko's burns

[amashilu]

Many times I have read people's speculation -- sometimes they go right past speculation and just assume -- that Krivonischenko's leg burns came from him putting his leg in the fire to try to warm up, in a state of freeze and mental disorientation.

Of course, he was found lying near this small fire and that is probably why people automatically connect it to his burned leg.

I went back to his autopsy report and noted this:

There is a burn across the entire surface of the left anticnemion with a size of 31 x 10 cm ...... the lower third of the left shin is of a brown-black color with charred tissue and and bursting skin, then in the middle third and upper third the burn surface is bright red and light brown.

Anticnemion definition: The anatomical term for the shin or the anterior (front) part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
• Origin: Derived from Greek, where anti- means "in front of" and knēmē means "shin" or "leg."
• Medical context: It often refers specifically to the region covering the front border of the tibia (shinbone).

This means that it was the front of Krivo's leg, the shin, that was burned, not the back, as would be expected if he had laid his leg in the fire. The 31-cm-long (that is over 12 inches) by 10-cm-wide (4 inches) burn was the worst in the lower third (3rd degree, charred and bursting) and from then up to the knee, it was 2nd and/or 1st degree.

I'm trying to imagine how he would put his shin in the fire, and not the back of the leg. No burns on the back of the leg were noted at autopsy.

The other leg was not burned.

The fire was quite small and burned itself out within 90 minutes, not for lack of fuel, which was lying nearby, but from not being tended to. It doesn't make sense that Krivonischenko needed the fire so much that he would lay one leg in it, but he wouldn't tend it and keep it going. And how would he lay one leg in it anyway? Lie down on his stomach and move one leg over so his shin was in the fire?

Because I give a lot of credit to these hikers' intelligence, skill, and experience, and because Krivonischenko's burn was on the shin of his leg, not the back side, I don't see a way forward for the belief that he laid his leg in the fire.

So what else could have happened to burn his shin so badly? In a YouTube interview, Eduard Tempalov suggests that Krivonischenko was tortured by fire, causing him to bite his finger skin off, but he didn't spit it out or swallow it because right after this, he was hit on the head and died.



 (at 5:45)

I also want to talk about the injuries to his hands, but will leave that for another thread.