How long does a body last when buried in a coffin?

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asked Dec 17, 2021 in Science by Monteirio (1,380 points)
How long does a body last when buried in a coffin?

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answered Dec 19, 2021 by Saltydogg (2,150 points)
A body buried in a coffin will usually last up to 100 or so years.

Although after 50 years in the coffin the bodies tissues would liquefy and disappear and leave behind mummified skin and bone.

However these too will disintegrate, and after 80 years in the coffin, the bones will crack as the soft collagen inside them deteriorates, leaving nothing but the brittle mineral frame behind.

The things that would indicate that a corpse has been dead between 2 and 8 hours include the pooling of blood and the pressed color of the skin would disappear.

By eight hours postmortem, livor mortis has progressed to its maximum state.

Livor mortis is of extreme use to forensic scientists as lividity – skin changes associated with the pooling of blood once circulation has stopped – is a fixed entity.

You can usually temporarily reverse rigor mortis through massage which can loosen the joints temporarily.

However biologically the rigor mortis will actually reverse on it's own.

Rigor Mortis actually does reverse and the body returns to a flaccid state; the muscles losing their tightness in the reverse of how they gained it: i.e.: those larger muscles that contracted last will lose their stiffness first and return to their pre-Rigor condition.

Rigor mortis face or rigor mortis of the face is when the face looks like it's grimacing.

Muscle relaxation immediately after death with opening of the eyes and mouth and subsequent fixation in rigor mortis often occurs after death, giving the face the appearance of grimacing.

The parts of the body that are the first to show signs of rigor mortis are the muscles of the eyelids and then after that rigor mortis then spreads to the neck and upper limbs, trunk and lower limbs.

Those muscles first to develop rigor are first to become flaccid again and rigor usually stays longest in the lower limbs.

Rigor mortis is the postmortem change resulting in the stiffening of the body muscles.

The rigor mortis or stiffening of the body is caused by chemical changes in the dead persons myofibrils.

Rigor mortis helps in estimating the time since death as well to ascertain if the body had been moved after death.

The four categories of death are natural death, accidental death, homicide death and suicide death.

After death the brain may stay alive and active for a few minutes to a few hours.

Also after death the bones, tendons, and skin can survive as long as 8 to 12 hours.

The brain, however, appears to accumulate ischemic injury faster than any other organ.

Without special treatment after circulation is restarted, full recovery of the brain after more than 3 minutes of clinical death at normal body temperature is rare.

According to religion what happens 40 days after death is the soul completes many obstacles known as the aerial toll houses.

The soul passes through the aerial realm, which is home to evil spirits.

At the end of the 40 days, the soul finds its place in the afterlife.

If a person dies and they have poop inside of them or pee then the dead person will usually poop or pee within 24 to 72 hours after death.

Some people who die may poop as soon as 12 to 24 hours after death and then some people may not poop until 72 hours after death.

Then again some people may not poop at all or pee at all after death.

It depends if someone has poop in their bowels or pee in their bladder if they will poop or pee or not.

The body may release stool from the rectum, urine from the bladder, or saliva from the mouth.

This happens as the body's muscles relax. Rigor mortis , a stiffening of the body muscles, will develop in the hours after death.

Within 24-72 hours after death — the internal organs decompose. 3-5 days after death — the body starts to bloat and blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose.

8-10 days after death — the body turns from green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the abdomen accumulate gas.

Decomposition begins several minutes after death with a process called autolysis, or self-digestion.

Soon after the heart stops beating, cells become deprived of oxygen, and their acidity increases as the toxic by-products of chemical reactions begin to accumulate inside them.

The blood and bodily fluids of a dead person at a funeral home just drain down the table, into the sink, and down the drain.

This goes into the sewer, like every other sink and toilet, and (usually) goes to a water treatment plant.

Now any items that are soiled with blood—those cannot be thrown away in the regular trash.

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