WEEK THREE: Rigor, Livor, and Algor Mortis
Hi, y’all!!
Yet again, this week was filled with more learning! In this blog, I will go into a few more things that go into the preparation. This past Monday, 2/26, I got to the office at 7 a.m. There were seven cases for the day. I was able to observe how they do X-rays on the decedents. The X-rays are taken through the body bag before the seal is broken. This is because when the body is received, it is in a sealed body bag. This is done to keep any evidence from the body inside the bag until later when the seals of the bag are broken. The body is photographed inside the bag to note how the decedent looks before an autopsy. The X-rays are then taken in sections, for example, the upper arm and lower arm. This is done to get a good photograph of the specific section to obtain details of it.
There are a few external findings and considerations that they take into account when examining the body. One of them is rigor mortis, which is the stiffening of the body’s muscles due to chemical changes that occur postmortem. Rigor mortis can help with estimating the time of death as well as the position of the body at the time of death. Here are some of the time estimations: 1–2 hours after death, the rigor will begin; 8–12 hours after death, it will be in full rigor; 24–48 hours after death, muscle tissues will begin to decompose, causing the muscles to become limp again. However, because of certain external factors, these times may vary. For example, if there are high temperatures surrounding the body, the rigor mortis process will happen faster; conversely, lower temperatures will cause rigor mortis to set in slower. Some other factors that can speed up or slow down rigor mortis include the weight of the body, the body’s clothing (or lack thereof), the level of physical activity at the time of death, and sun exposure.
Another external finding that they take into consideration is livor mortis also referred to as lividity which is the pooling of the blood in the lower areas of the postmortem body due to gravity causing discoloration of the skin. From this, they can also determine an estimation of the time of death as well as the position of the body. The areas with darker lividity, show that there was less contact with a surface which causes it to be a darker purplish color. In the areas with lighter lividity, there would have been tighter contact with a surface causing lighter discoloration. To have an estimation of the time of death, what they will do is add pressure to the areas with lividity. When added pressure there will be blanching or whitish discoloration which occurs up to 8-12 hours after death, but after this time the blood becomes fixed which will cause less blanching when pressure is added. Algor mortis is another consideration they take in estimating the time of death. Algor mortis is the cooling of the body temperature. After 12 hours of death an approximation of 0.78℃ each hour after the first, this occurs until the body reaches room temperature.
Next week I will go more in-depth over what they look for during an exam.
Thanks for reading!!!
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