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Death and Dying

Death is the ending of life. It is medically defined as the irreversible cessation of all bodily functions.

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What is a leading cause of death for seniors?
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Falls. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that falls are the top cause of injury-related death in people age 65 and older. About 2 million people in this age bracket visited an emergency room in 2005 for fall-related injuries. Twenty to 30 percent suffered injuries such as broken hips or traumatic brain injuries.
What causes body tissue to die?
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Disease or severe injury sometimes can damage portions of the body beyond their capability to heal or regenerate. When that happens and body tissue dies, infection can occur, causing dangerous conditions such as gangrene. Infection sites can become a stronghold for dangerous bacteria, which then can spread to other places in the body. The lack of blood flow is a key cause of tissue death. Blood ...
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What is rigor mortis?
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There is a reason that people use the word &quots;stiff&quots; as slang for dead body. Within two or three hours after an animal or person dies, the muscles begin to stiffen. The phenomenon progresses, and within 12 to 18 hours, the body is as stiff as a board. At that point, the only way to move the joints is by force, which will break them. After about two days, rigor mortis fades and ...
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What causes rigor mortis?
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In short, a biochemical chain reaction that causes someone's muscles to move when he or she is alive will no longer work when he or she dies. When the chain reaction stops, the muscles are locked in place.
What is autolysis?
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During rigor mortis, a process called autolysis occurs. This process is the self-digestion of the body's cells. Cell walls give way and their contents flow out. Rigor mortis does not end because muscles relax but instead because autolysis takes command. The muscles become soft on their way to decomposition.
How can rigor mortis help solve crimes?
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A body stiffens in the exact position it was in at a person's death. If the position of the body does not match up to the location where it is found, it could mean that someone moved the body.
What is lividity?
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Lividity is a purple coloring that develops when a dead body has been in one position for awhile. Once the blood has congealed, it can tell whether there was a change in the body's position after death.
How does rigor mortis help determine time of death?
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It does not provide a precise time of death, but rigor mortar provides useful clues. It is like an alarm clock that is set to go off and stop ringing with a specific time span. A number of variables affect the progression of rigor mortis and investigators consider these when estimating when death occurred. These variables include: Temperature: Warm conditions speed up both the onset and pace o...
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Besides rigor mortis, what are other clues for time of death?
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Rigor mortis sometimes can help provide a general idea of when someone died, but forensic pathologists use other indicators to help provide a greater certainty as to time of death. They include: Body temperature: The cooling rate for a body is about 1.5 to 2 degrees per hour. If a body registers around 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33.33 degrees Celsius), it has been dead for about four hours. Stomac...
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Who is Pierre Nysten?
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French pediatrician Pierre Nysten, in 1812, recorded his observation that rigor mortis begins around the face and head and then continues in a downward progression, in a set pattern to the rest of the body and the extremities. Known as Nysten's law, this principle likely reflects the fact that -- although rigor mortis affects all of the muscles in the same way at the same time -- it may first be...
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