More details are emerging on the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne, who died Wednesday after falling off a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. Most notably, info from a preliminary autopsy on Payne has been distributed by Argentina's National Prosecutor's Office, which notes in a release that the 31-year-old performer died of "polytrauma and internal and external bleeding," per Today. According to the National Library of Medicine, polytrauma is fingered when a victim suffers "multiple injuries, some of which may cause significant disability and may be life-threatening." The definition goes on to say that globally, "the most common cause of polytrauma is motor vehicle accidents; other causes include suicide and homicide attempts."
The prosecutor's office used a similar definition in its description of polytrauma, noting it means a victim has suffered "multiple traumatic injuries." Officials say that Payne suffered more than two dozen injuries "compatible with those produced by a fall from height," and that the singer's brain and skull injuries in particular were "sufficiently suitable to cause death." Forensic experts also said Payne didn't have any defensive injuries on his hands that would have suggested he'd scuffled with someone before the fall, and the way his body was positioned on the ground below his room at the CasaSur Palermo hotel suggested Payne "did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and that he could have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness."
CNN notes questions remain in the singer's death, including whether he accidentally fell off the balcony, intentionally leaped, or was pushed, though, according to the prosecutor's office, "everything indicates that the musician was alone when the fall occurred, and that he was going through some kind of breakdown as a result of substance abuse." The death has been deemed "doubtful/undetermined."
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Additional testing should reveal whether Payne had alcohol or drugs in his system at the time of death; the prosecutor's office said that "a series of substances were seized from the musician's room, which would prove a previous situation of alcohol and drugs consumption." Argentine officials say they've put in a request for those toxicology tests, which the New York Times reports could take a few weeks. More background here and here. (More Liam Payne stories.)
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