Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, meningococcal disease, and Group A streptococcal disease are considered to pose the greatest risks for those handling or in contact with recently dead bodies.
OPEN-CASKET FUNERAL ETIQUETTE
While some people find comfort in seeing their loved ones as they remember them, it may also be uncomfortable to others. If they have an open casket viewing, make sure you follow proper funeral etiquette: DON'T touch the body under any circumstances.
As the blood pools, patches appear on the skin within 30 minutes of death. About two to four hours postmortem, these patches join up, creating large dark purplish areas towards the bottom of the body and lightening the skin elsewhere. This may be less apparent on darker skin. This process is called livor mortis.
Livor mortis is the gravitational settling of blood which is no longer being pumped through the body after death, causing a bluish-purple discoloration of the skin. It is one of the post-mortem signs of death, along with pallor mortis, algor mortis, and rigor mortis.
The human body is host to many organisms, only some of which are pathogenic. When the body dies, the environment in which pathogens live can no longer sustain them. However, this does not happen immediately, and transmission of infectious agents from a cadaver to a living person may occur.
Just a small trace of blood can cause an infection. At room temperature, it's thought the virus may be able survive outside the body in patches of dried blood on surfaces for up to several weeks. The main ways you can become infected with the hepatitis C virus are described here.
Wash your wound gently with soap and water. Don't scrub. ➜ If body fluids splash into your eyes, nose or mouth, wash them with lots of water. thoroughly with running water.
Rigor mortis generally disappears 36 hours after death, followed by a phase known as secondary flaccidity. The late post-mortem phase is when the body tissue starts disintegrating and is primarily describable as decomposition or putrefaction, adipocere formation, mummification, or skeletonization.
Not all cultures hold funerary memorials forty days after death. Some pagan traditions believe that the soul of a recently deceased person continues to wander the earth for forty days; other religious traditions believe the soul will rest in the Lord's hands after death.
After a few weeks, nails and teeth will fall out. After 1 month, the liquefaction process commences. During this stage the body loses the most mass. The muscles, organs and skin are liquefied, with the cadaver's bones, cartilage and hair remaining at the end of this process.
For the first few minutes of the postmortem period, brain cells may survive. The heart can keep beating without its blood supply. A healthy liver continues breaking down alcohol. And if a technician strikes your thigh above the kneecap, your leg likely kicks, just as it did at your last reflex test with a physician.
Pupils dilate
When people die, their bodies relax. This impacts your eyes just as much as the rest of your body. As soon as the muscles that control your eye movement relax, the pupils dilate. This happens over a progression of several hours after death.
An unexpected discovery made by an international team, examining the results of an EEG on an elderly patient, who died suddenly of a heart attack while the test was in progress.
We think this is an urban legend. We've witnessed many cremations and never heard a scream. But then again, cremation retorts aren't silent either. Now, bodies do make all kinds of gnarly noises.
It's OK to touch and hug loved ones after they die. It's also OK to gently close the eyelids if they're still open and you'd feel more comfortable if they were shut. Some people find they want to tidy up around the room or around the bed, and this is fine, too.
Respect the graves.
Touching monuments or headstones is extremely disrespectful and in some cases, may cause damage. For example, some older memorials might be in disrepair and could fall apart under the slightest touch.
According to ancient beliefs, the deceased's soul stays on Earth for up to 9 days after the death. During this time, the family gathers for prayers and a celebratory meal in honor of the deceased.
No matter what a person's preference is, from the Christian perspective, cremation does not prevent one from going to Heaven.
Black putrefaction (10-20 days after death) – exposed skin turns black, bloating collapses and fluids are released from the body. Butyric fermentation (20-50 days after death) – the remaining flesh is removed, butyric acid is formed "fermenting" the remains and the body begins to mold if in contact with the ground.
The first visible change to the body—occurring 15 to 20 minutes after death—is pallor mortis, in which the body begins to pale. Pallor mortis occurs because blood stops moving through the capillaries, the smallest of the body's blood vessels.
What Happens One Hour After Death? At the moment of death, all of the muscles in the body relax (primary flaccidity ). The eyelids lose their tension, the pupils dilate, the jaw may fall open, and the joints and limbs are flexible.
24-72 hours after death — the internal organs decompose. 3-5 days after death — the body starts to bloat and blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose. 8-10 days after death — the body turns from green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the abdomen accumulate gas.
Also, dried blood often has a darker, rust-coloured quality: all dried blood has been oxygenated and then desiccated, causing the cells within it to die. This blood is often darker than either shade of red that can be seen in fresh blood.
Blood may contain microbes that give you infections. These include blood-borne viruses, like Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV. Risk of a viral infection through exposure depends on how much blood you were exposed to, how much virus was in the blood, and how deep the blood penetrated your tissues.
Bloodborne pathogens are a risk you should never take the chance with. Simply touching blood – even dried blood can be extremely dangerous. What appears to be “dry” blood may, in fact, have only been spilled hours before and therefore still have pathogens in it that are infectious.