About a week ago, I attended a friend's father burial. The burial was meant to be a fast one, but due to the event of things, his remains had to be buried on the third day after death. Burying a person long after death isn't something people aren't familiar with, since there are ways to prevent the body from swelling and delay or prevent decomposition of the body in the mortuary, but according to my friend, his father's wish was to be buried without any form of embalming. So the cadaver had to stay for 2 days and few hours before being buried. The man died on a Monday, and it took his children the following day to arrive at their family residence. I also arrived the following day with my friend to pay my condolences, I never knew I was going to be attending a Christian wake-keep as well. As at the time of the wake-keep when the body was placed in a coffin, there was no form of embalming done to the body. The nose, the mouth and the ears were only covered with wool (I do not think anything else was added to the wool) to prevent air from freely going into the body, but it was visible to myself and my friend that the body was already swelling. My friend and his brothers were worried about this and wanted to quickly put the body to the ground, but while the Christian wake-keep was going on, a few Ekiti (Nigeria) traditional rights had to be performed, and this extended the time for the body to be buried.
In the evening, even with the ventilation, and the space, I could perceive the stench coming from the remains and I wish the burial could be done with once and for all, but a few friends and I had to console my friend, and show support. At midnight, it was becoming unbearable, and the swell was becoming more visible. My friend wanted to get a doctor to embalm his father, but his brothers would not allow him to disobey their father's wishes (even though I could see they wish they could do the necessary). After all traditional rights were done, the burial ceremony wish was scheduled for 9:00AM was moved earlier to 6:30AM, because the rate of decomposition wasn't something they could predict. In my rush to quickly change my cloths at 5:50AM to meet up with the family at 7:00AM for the burial, I missed the burial because he was buried 30 minutes before I arrived.
I didn't intend to write my experience about the burial in a post, but today while on Twitter, I saw the news about a man who died in his house 4 years ago, and nobody knew he was dead for 4 years. The image I saw showed the man died on his bed in his panties, and the only thing that was left of the remains were bones. This got me curious, and I decided to do a little research on what happens to the human at the time of death, and what happens to the remains after death. I also decided to share my research here.
Death is the moment when the body stops to live. The entire organ of the body stops performing their duties, as the heart stops beating, the brain dies, and every other part of the body stops working completely. While sleep is required to rest your body to be energized to work when awake, death doesn't have to do with energizing the body, because the body and its organs had stopped functioning. According to this article, death isn't a painful experience, some people could experience pain, which could be associated with an underlying type of disease, others would not feel pain when life leaves their body. According to a read on healthdirect.gov, certain events are meant to occur to an individual about 24 hours before death, this includes, a sudden burst of energy, spending most times asleep, decreased blood pressure, less urination and many more. I could disagree with some of these based on some death events I have seen. In the case of a person suffering from an illness, they might sleep more hours before death, while in the case of people who weren't hospitalized, sleeping more might not be one of their experiences. My friend's father had a normal day, even on the day of his death, he pounded yam in the morning, something he does regularly (which even makes me wonder if I can classify it as an outburst of adrenaline). Depending on the individual and the cause of death, I will say that their experiences and signs shown weeks, days, and hours, before death could vary.
Death isn't an instant act. According to research done on the brain of a person who was removed from life support and studied under Electroencephalographic recording for 30 minutes, the cerebral function of the brain is active until about 10 minute after blood circulation stops. This could be completely different in cases of brain death, where the brain is literally no more functioning, but blood is still circulating in the body. In this case, the brain dies first. In the case of circulatory system death, doctors would check out a few things to determine if a person is dead. These things include; Airway / Breathing (absence of breathing at the time of death), Circulation (absence of a pulse), Disability (failure of pupil contraction to bright light), and Exposure (absence of reflexes, and peripheral cold). In brain death, the cerebral and the brain stem stops to function.
After death, what happens to the body can be affected by several factors including heat, moisture, and other factors, but then, the first stage of decomposition in the body is pallor mortis which happens about 15 minutes after death when the skin becomes pale as a result of lack of blood circulation. The next stage is the Algor mortis which is the stage where the body starts to become cold. 30 minutes after the death the next stage, Livor Mortis starts. This is when the blood starts to settle in the arteries and veins, with gravity (the blood settles in toward the part of the body on the ground). The body is in the Livor Mortis stage for 30 minutes to 2 hours. The Next phase will be Rigor mortis where the body starts to get stiff, starting with the neck, the jaw, and other muscles. This could go on until 12 hours after death. After rigidity has been complete, the muscles starts to loosen, and internal tissues starts to decay, due to chemical changes in the body. This stage is called Secondary Flaccidity. In this stage, the skin starts to shrink, making nails and hair look longer. This process can last up to 48 hours. After 48 hours, bloating begins. The body starts to increase in size, becoming twice the normal size of the person when alive. In this stage, foamy blood starts to leak from the mouth and nostrils. At this stage, leaked enzymes in the body cause the body to emit gasses, causing putrefaction (production of unpleasant odors). At this stage, skin discoloration is visible looking greenish, bacteria and other microorganisms' activity in the body become intense, increasing the odor in the environment. This stage would go on for up to 5 days, within day 6 to 10, fluids start to come out of the orifices and decay begins in full. The body starts to change to red/dark-brown color, resulting from blood decomposition. The organs and abdomen start to hold gas. Several weeks after death, nails and teeth start to fall out due to the decomposition of fingers and the flesh of the jaw and mouth. Months later, Organs, muscles, and other part of the body start to decompose and liquify, leaving the hair, bones, and other parts of the body that do not easily decompose like the cartilages. These could take years to decompose. Due to the acid produced in the stomach and other part of the body, things such as cloths worn could be degraded before the body become skeleton.
Conclusion
After reading this news, I needed to understand how long the community would have been perceiving the offensive odor from the man without paying close attention to the place where the odor was coming from. It also made me research on how long it took for a body to completely decompose. I am also happy we could bury my friend's dad early before it started calling a lot of unnecessary attention. Anyways, I fell ill after the burial, I was diagnosed for Malaria, but my instinct says part of my illness could be related to the burial i attended.
Reference
Verywellhealth.com - Is Death Painful?
healthdirect.gov - The physical process of dying
The Sydney morning herald - What happens as we die?
Teach Me Surgery - How to Certify Death
uptodate.com - Diagnosis of brain death
Link.springer.com - Postmortem Changes and Time of Death
Scienceabc.com - What Is Pallor Mortis?
Sciencedirect.com - Rigor Mortis