Stages of Human Decomposition
“Somebody will fine your dead body, or your dead body will never be found, either way there’s no escaping death”
Stage 1 Dying and Death
The dying process usually begins a few weeks or even as early as 3 Months before death occurs. Certain changes take place, psychologically, behaviourally and physically as a person nears the end of their life.
Here are the most common signs of impending death.
A dying person will begin to Sleep excessively and for long periods of time. The mildest physical exertion for somebody approaching death can be exhausting and nearer the end they will increasingly drift in and out of consciousness.
Skin and stature changes.
The skin can become paper thin and very pale, especially in the elderly. Liver spots may appear on their hands and face and their hair will become thin.
They may also shrink in stature.
They may emit a pungent sickly oder. In some cases they will emit an acetone type oder. This is caused by their system shutting down and their metabolism changing
Their Behavioural changes,
They may begin to withdraw from their surroundings and decline visits from neighbours, friends and family members. When they do accept visitors, they may not be very vocal.
They lose their Appetite completely. This usually happens a few weeks before death. As the body begins to slow down, it no longer needs fuel to keep it going so the dying will often lose their desire to eat or drink and can begin to lose weight very rapidly.
They may suffer from confusion and start speaking irrational or nonsensical
A couple of days or a few hours before death, they may get a surge of energy as if the person is getting better, but this is usually a sign that they are moving closer towards death, rather than away from it.
The body temperature lowers by a degree or more and the blood pressure lowers and their pulse becomes irregular, and may slow down or speed up. There is increased perspiration and lips and nail beds become pale and bluish.
Their breathing becomes more rapidly.
The hands and feet become blotchy and purplish (mottled). This mottling will work its way up their arms and legs. Their lips may start to droop. They usually becomes unresponsive by this point and may have their eyes open slightly but not seeing their surroundings.
It is widely believed that the hearing is the last sense to go.
The heart stops beating then they start to convulse taking in shorter breaths, their ears start to get cold because of lack of circulation.and their blood turns acidic.
They lose their cough reflex causing a build of mucous. Due to spasms this will cause a gurgling or rattling sound. This sound is known as the “death rattle.” the lungs shut down and finally the brain stops functioning. Although the Brain stem may still be alive.
Recent studies show that our brains continue to "work" for 10 minutes, maybe longer, meaning that our brains, may be aware of our death. However, the research is only preliminary.
There are a few requirements doctors use if a person dies in a hospital setting to define death.
The absence of a pulse, the absence of breathing, the absence of reflexes, and the absence of pupillary constriction in response to a bright light.
Stage 2. Pallor Mortis and Algor Mortis
At the moment of death, every muscle in the body relaxes, this is a state called “primary flaccidity”.
The eyelids lose their tension and the pupils dilate. In some cases the jaw might fall open, as the cadavers joints and limbs are still flexible. The skin will sag due to the loss of tension in the muscles, which can cause joints and bones in the body, such as the jaw or hips to become prominent and pronounced.
Within minutes of the heart stopping, a process called “pallor mortis” causes the person to grow pale as blood drains from the smaller veins in the skin.
The body also begins to cool from its normal temperature of 37° Celsius until reaching the ambient temperature around it. This is known as algor mortis or the "death chill”.
Stage 3. Livor Mortis
2-4 Hours After Death. Blood starts pooling in the body as gravity pulls the blood to the areas of the cadaver closest to the ground, causing discolouration. This starts to happen 20 to 30 minutes after death but doesn’t become visible until a few hours thereafter. This is called “liver mortis” which appears as a reddish- purplish -blue colour on the skin. Embalmers sometimes refer to this as the postmortem stain.
At this point the bowels and bladder begin to empty due to your mussels being relaxed. Also the brain cells then die and begin to liquefy. Due potassium in the red blood cells breaking down, the pupils of the eyes begin to dilate, and cloud over.
The eyeballs then start to flatten due to loss of blood pressure, indicating brain stem death.
Stage 4, Rigor Mortis
Rigor Mortis is the stiffening of muscles due to a range of chemical change in the muscle structure. Muscle fibers rely on the conversion of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) After death. When respiration ceases, the intracellular pH decreases due to the production of lactic and pyruvic acid.
The anaerobic glycolysis of glycogen in the muscles causes glycogen depletion and reducing the ATP concentrations. Also calcium leaks into the sarcomere, where the protein filaments of actin and myosin are present in an alternating arrangement, calcium then binds allowing for a cross-linkage to occur between the filaments. This causes a pulling motion along the length of the muscle causing it to become shorter and more rigid. In a living person, ATP would be used to disconnect the cross-linking in the fibers and as a result the rigidity associated with the change would be reversed, whereas it becomes fixed in the event of death. This can occur as soon as 4 hours after death.
The first muscles to be affected first will be the eyelids, jaw, and neck, then over the next several hours, rigour mortis will spread into the face and down through the chest, abdomen, arm and legs until it reaches the fingers and toes.
Stage 5, Secondary Flaccidity
12 hours after death when the cadaver as reached a state of maximum rigor mortis, the muscles will start to loosen due to continued chemical changes within the cells and the decay of the internal organs. This is known as secondary flaccidity and occurs over a period of one to three days depending on the influence of external conditions such as temperature.
The colder, the slower a cadaver decays. During this process, the skin will begin to shrink, This will create the illusion that hair and nails are growing. Rigor mortis will then dissipate in the opposite direction from the fingers and toes to the face, over a period of up to 48 hours. Once this is complete, the muscles of the body will once again be relaxed.
