However, on average, a body buried within a typical coffin usually starts to break down within a year, but takes up to a decade to fully decompose, leaving only the skeleton, Daniel Wescott, director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University, told Live Science.
In a coffin or casket, a body will decompose over time. During the first few months underground, the body will typically undergo active decay, putrefaction, and blackening. Over several decades, the tissue and organs will continue to break down and liquefy until only the teeth remain.
So what happens to the body in casket after 2 months? After bloating, it enters the 3rd phase, or 'Active Decay,' where organs liquefy. The body will lose mass, slowly revealing the skeleton. If you open the casket of a non-embalmed body, it will be more decomposed than an embalmed body in a few months or years.
The body takes between ten to fifteen years to decay to a point where you may just find bones, teeth and hair remaining in the casket. There may also be some excess tissue and clothing fibers that withstood the ten years of decay.
But if we were to talk about what happens to the body after embalming, well after three – four months, the yellow-green complexion would have turned to a brownish-black colour because of the blood vessels that have deteriorated to the point that the iron inside of them spills out.
This process of bacteria producing noticeable gas can take 2-3 days. A decomposing body will typically have a smell of rotting meat with fruity undertones. Exactly what the smell will be like depends on a multitude of factors: The makeup of different bacteria present in the body.
However, on average, a body buried within a typical coffin usually starts to break down within a year, but takes up to a decade to fully decompose, leaving only the skeleton, Daniel Wescott, director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University, told Live Science.
Morgues keep dead bodies until they can be identified or undergo an autopsy. Hospitals include morgues for the bodies of patients who have died until they can be taken away to a funeral home. The morgue keeps the body refrigerated to prevent biological decay.
Do they remove organs when you are embalmed? One of the most common questions people have about embalming is whether or not organs are removed. The answer is no; all of the organs remain in the body during the embalming process.
For the most part, however, if a non-embalmed body was viewed one year after burial, it would already be significantly decomposed, the soft tissues gone, and only the bones and some other body parts remaining.
Caskets made from either metal or wood will take an average of 50 or more years to decompose underground. The casket's duration depends on the type of wood used to build it and the composition of chemicals found on the grave.
It is a common practice to cover the legs as there is swelling in the feet and shoes don't fit. As part of funeral care, the body is dressed and preserved, with the prime focus on the face. Post embalming, bodies are often placed without shoes; hence covering the legs is the way to offer a dignified funeral.
(Note: If you're buried alive and breathing normally, you're likely to die from suffocation. A person can live on the air in a coffin for a little over five hours, tops. If you start hyperventilating, panicked that you've been buried alive, the oxygen will likely run out sooner.)
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.
If the grave site is low on water content or moisture, metal caskets are known to last even longer, over five decades. Under favorable weather conditions, experts say that metal caskets may even last more than that – up to 80 years.
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.
Trimming hair and nails
Generally, this emanates from the belief that nails and hair were given to the children by the deceased as a parent and as such they shouldn't be trimmed during the mourning period and after the burial. At least you should wait for 49 days.
A hospital is allowed to keep the body of a deceased person in a hospital mortuary for up to 21 days after the date of death (section 80 of the Regulation). Hospital mortuaries are designed for the short-term storage of a limited number of bodies of persons that pass away in hospitals.
A body may be different in death to life because:
a mortician or funeral director has changed a body's appearance through clothing, or hair arrangement, or cosmetics. Such “dressing” of the body may be very different to how the person in life would have done it. the body smells different.
After 5 years of burial, the body's condition may be unrecognizable. Most of the tissues will have decomposed to the point where there is very little – if any – soft tissue left. The body's skeletal remains will be exposed, and there may be some hair and nails that have survived.
Because of the Size of the Body
If a body is ever too tall for a standard casket, the mortician will find one that is larger.
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. Several weeks after death — nails and teeth fall out.
Bodies at formal open casket funerals will not smell bad due to having been embalmed shortly after death. However, smells such as perfumes or flowers may be common at an open casket funeral. Bodies with unavoidable smells will typically not be offered an open casket funeral.
Preparation Room Odors: When preparing a human body for the embalming process, odors can arise from bodily fluids as well as the decomposition process, which begins to set in shortly after death. Embalming fluid and other chemicals used in the preparation process also cause odors.