The body is then washed with a disinfectant solution. Next, the body is drained of blood and replaced with a preserving fluid. This fluid helps to reduce the rate of decomposition and delay the onset of rigor mortis. Finally, the body is prepared for burial or cremation.
Preserving the Deceased's Remains
Yet, deterioration of the body sets in almost instantly. To prevent rapid decay, funeral homes drain out the blood and other fluids since they facilitate faster decomposition.
Sometimes dyes are added, too. What happens to the blood and other fluid removed from the body? It is flushed down the drain! Yes, it enters the sewage system and is treated by the wastewater treatment system in whatever town you are in.
Organs are only removed in the event of an autopsy or organ donation, neither of which are done by embalmers. The cavity receives some embalming fluid from the initial injection into the artery, but it needs more.
I am not a mortician, but I work for a medical examiner/coroner. During an autopsy, most blood is drained from the decedent.
Over time, coffins underground will decompose and eventually collapse. Covering the face before closing the casket adds an extra layer of protection and dignity for the deceased's face and can act as a symbolic final goodbye.
Any change in the position of the body causes blood to settle down in the newer dependent areas, referred to as 'shifting of postmortem lividity. ' However, this shifting may not be possible after 6 to 8 hours of death, due to postmortem coagulation of blood accumulated in the dependent areas of the body.
Your brain is one of the first parts of your body to break down. Just a few minutes after death, its cells collapse and release water. Then other energy-guzzling organs follow. That night, microbes eat through your gut and escape into the rest of your body.
We don't remove them. You can use what is called an eye cap to put over the flattened eyeball to recreate the natural curvature of the eye. You can also inject tissue builder directly into the eyeball and fill it up. And sometimes, the embalming fluid will fill the eye to normal size.
In a closed casket funeral, the casket remains closed during the viewing and the funeral service. Family members and guests are not able to see the body, and some prefer this option for a variety of reasons.
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.
Once a funeral home has picked up the body and brought it to their facility, they will then clean and dress and/or shroud the body. Afterward, the body will be placed in refrigeration to keep it cool until the day of burial, at which point the body will be transported to the burial site.
They will also wash the body of the person who's died, making sure it's clean of any blood or bodily fluids.
Eyes and lips are not sewn or glued shut. During the embalming process, an "eye cap" is placed under each eyelid and over the eyeball. The eyes themselves may soften a little over time, but the eye cap helps to retain the shape of the eye. A Vaseline-like cream is placed on the lips to keep them together.
What's really returned to you is the person's skeleton. Once you burn off all the water, soft tissue, organs, skin, hair, cremation container/casket, etc., what you're left with is bone. When complete, the bones are allowed to cool to a temperature that they can be handled and are placed into a processing machine.
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.
That said, it's possible for people to survive being injected with formaldehyde, Hoyte said. A person's survival would depend on the dose given, but because this situation is so rare, doctors don't really know what a fatal or non-fatal dose would be.
How Long Does an Embalmed Body Last? Some people think that embalming completely stops the decay of the body, but this isn't true. If you plan on having an open-casket funeral, then you should not leave the embalmed body out for more than a week. Otherwise, the embalmed body can last two more weeks.
A body presents little threat to public health in the first day following the death. However, after 24 hours the body will need some level of embalming. A mortuary will be able to preserve the body for approximately a week. Regardless of the embalming, decomposition will begin after one week.
If you are looking at a long-lasting ground casket, pick a steel or metal casket. 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.
In time, the heart stops and they stop breathing. Within a few minutes, their brain stops functioning entirely and their skin starts to cool. At this point, they have died.
Initially the color is red but it later becomes purple as oxygen dissociates from the hemoglobin, changing it to purple-colored deoxyhemoglobin. This color change can be variable depending on the circumstances of death and the environment.
Phase 3: Rigor Mortis
For approximately the first 3 hours after death the body will be flaccid (soft) and warm. After about 3-8 hours is starts to stiffen, and from approximately 8-36 hours it will be stiff and cold. The body becomes stiff because of a range of chemical changes in the muscle fibres after death.