Handling+Bodies+AF

DIs have to know the difference between a murder and a contagious disease that causes death -Or an accidental death and a suicide -They have to determine several things: how it happened, when it happened, what caused it -Pathologist are interested in the events that lead up to the death and the cause of the death -The manner of death: natural (died in a normal environment not “hostile”); accidental; suicide; homicide; undetermined -“a noncriminal homicide might be a killing justified as self-defense” -Any deaths not of natural causes should be investigated -The body gets wrapped in a clean white sheet to preserve evidence -Placed into a body bag to be transported -Body temperature→without oxygen body temperature goes down, especially if it is cold -Discoloration, postmortem lividity or hypostatis-dark purple of the body, appears one or two hours after death/lividity-when the heart stops pumping blood which cuases the red and white blood cells to separate. The red cells go to the lowest parts. -livity on his back if he is lieing down -Rigor mortis- immediately after death the body goes limp, “accumulating waste products stiffen the muscles” -First shown in face, lower jaw, and neck, and then spreads to the rest of the body -Release of rigor-heat that speeds it up -Ocular indicators-eyes are open after death, a thin film forms on the surface -Eyes look cloudy -Food digestion, personal factors-if a witness can say that she was alive at a certain time -Decay/decomposition rates-DIs have to become familiar with stages of decomposition -Air temperature, where the body was found, exposed to sun or wrapped in a blanket, placed in a cool cellar -Decomposition stages- -When heart stops beating, skin looks pale and waxy -The blood settles and has a discolored purplish red color -Desiccation -The body putrefies- greenish discoloration in the skin, the face swells and becomes unrecognizable -Rot spreads, bad odor, and bacterial in the intestines -Skin blisters from gasses, detaches from the muscles and burst, top layer peels off -Body can decompose into a skeleton within a few weeks -Water preserves twice as long as open air -Major two factors of decay are climate and insects -An autopsy is a way to determine the death -Usually an autopsy may be partial, only part of the body is examined -Could involve only one specific organ -A Y incision is made -The head and the brain are the last thing examined