Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: It's Christian Sager, and I have a deeply concerning question
Speaker 1: for you today. What happens when I die? And I
Speaker 1: don't mean like will I go to heaven? Or who
Speaker 1: gets all of my comic books? No, I want to
Speaker 1: know what someone's going to do with my dead body
Speaker 1: when it's on a slab of cold steel. How does
Speaker 1: an autopsy work? Well? First of all, a word of
Speaker 1: warning for our listeners. If you're squeamish, you might want
Speaker 1: to listen to I don't Know a less gross episode
Speaker 1: of brain Stuff, like wise bird Poop White or how
Speaker 1: do bedbugs work? Okay, are you ready? Now? Let's start
Speaker 1: by clarifying that an autopsy is a medical examination of
Speaker 1: a dead body to determine the cause of death, and
Speaker 1: there's two types, forensic and clinical. Clinical ones are performed
Speaker 1: for research, medical training, or at the request of the
Speaker 1: deceased family, and forensic autopsies are the ones you're used
Speaker 1: to seeing on TV, like when Agent Scully carves into
Speaker 1: a corpse because the truth is in there. This is
Speaker 1: often for legal reasons, potentially as evidence in criminal or
Speaker 1: civil court cases. While the general procedure is similar. For
Speaker 1: our purposes, let's stick to forensic autopsies. All legally investigated
Speaker 1: deaths fall into five categories natural accident, homicide, suicide, and undetermined. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that last one may seem a little wishy washy, but
Speaker 1: sometimes the answers aren't that clear for the attending medical
Speaker 1: examiner or coroner, and this is an important distinction. Forensic
Speaker 1: pathologists are physicians trained to perform autopsies. Here in the
Speaker 1: United States, most local governments mandate that an appointed pathologist
Speaker 1: called a medical examiner, perform an autopsy, but not all.
Speaker 1: In some counties they use corners instead of medical examiners,
Speaker 1: and a corner doesn't necessary really have to have medical training. Instead,
Speaker 1: they're elected to their position, and they can be anyone.
Speaker 1: They could be farmers, snake handlers, even podcast hosts, I guess.
Speaker 1: But if a non medical corner ever needs assistance, the
Speaker 1: state usually provides them with a medical examiner. When that
Speaker 1: examiner finally gets ahold of your cold body, here's what
Speaker 1: they're gonna do to it. First, they gather information on you,
Speaker 1: your death, and your medical records. Then they record an
Speaker 1: external exam of your appearance. They start by photographing you
Speaker 1: inside a body bag, noting your clothing and its position.
Speaker 1: Before stripping you naked, they try to establish your identity,
Speaker 1: noting ethnicity, gender, age, and hair and eye color. Then
Speaker 1: they collect samples of hair, fingernails, and any foreign objects
Speaker 1: found on your surface. Sometimes they use UV radiation or
Speaker 1: X rays to find further evidence. Once the external exam
Speaker 1: is done, they clean your body, weigh it, and measure
Speaker 1: it On the table. They place a rubber body block
Speaker 1: under your back to make your chest protrude forward so
Speaker 1: the arms and neck fall back. This makes it easier
Speaker 1: for the cutting. For a complete internal exam, they start
Speaker 1: with the chest, making a Y shaped incision. Following this,
Speaker 1: they peel back your skin, muscle and soft tissue with
Speaker 1: a scalpel, pull the chest flap over your face and
Speaker 1: expose your rib cage and neck muscles. Your rib cage
Speaker 1: is then removed, followed by your larynx, esophagus, arteries, and ligaments.
Speaker 1: By severing a few attachments to your spinal cord, bladder,
Speaker 1: and rectum, the examiner can remove the rest of your
Speaker 1: organs as an entire set. Your organs are each examined
Speaker 1: and weighed with sample slices taken of their tissue if necessary.
Speaker 1: These organs are stored in formulin. The examiner will also
Speaker 1: take your urine, blood, bile, and the vitreous gel from
Speaker 1: your eyes for further testing. Depending on how you died,
Speaker 1: They probably won't cut open your arms, hands, legs, or
Speaker 1: your face, but don't think your head is off the
Speaker 1: hook just yet. If they need a peek inside your noggin,
Speaker 1: the examiner will move the rubber block under your neck
Speaker 1: like a pillow. Then they will make a cut from
Speaker 1: behind one ear, across your forehead, over to the other ear,
Speaker 1: and around the back. Once this is divided, they can
Speaker 1: remove your scalp from your skull in two flaps, folding
Speaker 1: one over your face and the other over the back
Speaker 1: of your neck. Then outcomes the electric saw to pop
Speaker 1: the top of your skull off like a cap and
Speaker 1: expose your brain. This is severed from your spinal cord
Speaker 1: and tentorum and then lifted out Frankenstein style. Just like
Speaker 1: your other organs, it's weighed and examined. Well, what happens
Speaker 1: to all of these organs sitting outside of your body anyways, Well,
Speaker 1: depending on the style of funeral, they're either put back
Speaker 1: in or they're incinerated either way, the butterfly chest flaps
Speaker 1: are closed, the spell cap is placed back on your head,
Speaker 1: and everything is sewn up nice and tidy with a
Speaker 1: baseball stitch. Though, even after your body goes off to
Speaker 1: the funeral home, a pathologists work is never done. It
Speaker 1: takes days to get tissue and blood samples tested, and
Speaker 1: at least two weeks for brain samples. Then it takes
Speaker 1: hours more to write up a detailed report for the
Speaker 1: official record. Now keep in mind that this is a
Speaker 1: brief overview of the autopsy process. We didn't even get
Speaker 1: into examining wounds, determining the time of death, or what
Speaker 1: tools of the trade are used to crack you open.
Speaker 1: Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com.