What happens to your body when you die

• The body goes pale
• Complications: chronic liver failure
• The Lazarus phenomenon
• The brain can be conscious of death
• Dark-coloured urine
• Male corpses may get an erection
• The body goes pale
• Discolouration of the body
• The body gets cold
• The body goes stiff
• The body bloats
• Small white bumps near your eyes
• The tongue sticks out
• Blisters appear on the body
• The body smells
• The hair and fingernails appear to “grow”
• Liquefaction of organs and tissue
• Wrinkles disappear
• “Can I see it?”

The body goes pale

Even people who evade paying their taxes can’t avoid that other certainty in life: death. We all die, and when it happens, our bodies stop functioning the way they’re supposed to. And, well, it can be pretty gross. Here are a variety of things that happen to the body after death, when the organs have stopped functioning and tissues start to decompose.

Complications: chronic liver failure

We all know what it means to die on a practical level, but what does modern medicine have to say? After all, people can be “brought back from the dead” with the help of a few electric shocks.

Actual, “clinical” death is defined as the ceasing of all “vital functions” of your organs, including your heart, your brain, and your lungs.

The Lazarus phenomenon

In very rare instances, people have “come back” to life after CPR has stopped being performed, even if they’ve been pronounced dead for several minutes. For the majority of patients, “the Lazarus phenomenon” doesn’t last very long, and they die shortly after.

However, one review of 38 cases showed that 35 per cent of the patients returned to life without serious neurological damage.

The brain can be conscious of death

Often, when patients are “brought back” from the dead after cardiac arrest, usually through electric shocks to the heart, the patients can recall being “aware” of their short-lived “death.”

In these instances, it seems as if the brain is capable of retaining information, and some patients can even recall being pronounced dead before being resuscitated.

Dark-coloured urine

Before rigor mortis sets in, all the body’s muscles relax. The result, of course, could be one final bowel movement as the sphincters relax and the stuff they’re holding in is released.

This doesn’t actually happen very often, but if the bowels are full, it increases the likelihood that whatever is inside must come out.

Male corpses may get an erection

If the corpse is laying face down after death, it’s possible that gravity will pull the blood downward. For some men, the blood will pool in the phallus, giving the corpse the appearance of an erection.

The body goes pale

For the majority of light-skinned people, the first sign of death is pallor mortis, or “paleness of death.”

The body’s capillaries stop circulating blood and giving colour to its skin, which is noticeable as quickly as 15 to 25 minutes after death. It’s the first stage of a much longer process that occurs when the heart stops beating.

Discolouration of the body

After pallor mortis, the next thing that happens to your body after death is livor mortis, which refers to the discolouration of death.

With the heart no longer beating, the body’s blood will start feeling the effect of gravity and moving toward the ground. Parts of the body closest to ground will get darker as the blood “sinks.”

The body gets cold

Normally, human bodies have a resting temperature of about 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and that’s because of the energy they expend keeping you alive and well.

When the heart stops beating, the corpse will generally cool to the ambient temperature in a process known as algor mortis, or “the coldness of death.”

The body goes stiff

After death, the body’s muscles will begin to harden in a process known as rigor mortis, or “stiffness of death.”

The muscles stiffen because of a chemical reaction that occurs when the nervous system is no longer able to do its job. Rigor mortis happens two or three hours after death and lasts until the body starts to decay.

The body bloats

Even after death, much of a body’s tissues and cells remain alive for a short time. As bacteria in the gut begin to break down parts of the body (rather than food), these tissues react in strange and smelly ways.

Notably, the chemical reactions occurring within a corpse will cause the abdomen to bloat.

Small white bumps near your eyes

As bacteria and enzymes continue to work through the body and bloating continues to occur, the chemical reactions occurring within the body will eventually push the eyes out of their sockets.

Of course, this type of thing doesn’t happen to corpses that have been embalmed and cared for after their death.

The tongue sticks out

One consequence of the putrefaction process that occurs inside the body after death is that it will eventually force the body’s tongue to stick out.

As the body tissues continue to decompose and chemical reactions inside the corpse continue to produce excess gasses, the tongue swells and pops out of the mouth.

Blisters appear on the body

As putrefaction sets in and the body begins to decompose and liquefy, the corpse’s skin will develop liquid-filled blisters.

The corpse has not contracted a skin disease. Rather, this is just nature at work. At this point, the skin is so fragile and dehydrated that any touch will probably cause it to fall off.

The body smells

The gas created by bodily decomposition won’t just cause the body to bloat, it also stinks. When characters in TV shows remark on the odour of a corpse, this is what they’re referring to.

The hair and fingernails appear to “grow”

Without glucose, nerve cells that cause your fingernails and hair to grow stop working within a few minutes, meaning that they both stop growing as they would on a living person.

However, the skin that surrounds your hair and fingernails begins to withdraw after death as it loses moisture, creating the illusion that stubble and fingernails keep growing after death.

Liquefaction of organs and tissue

As the body decomposes, the living tissues and organs begin to liquefy and leak out of orifices.

The liquefied tissues and organs are full of nutrients. If allowed to mingle with soil, the body can actually become the home for some interesting new plants.

Wrinkles disappear

When someone dies, they immediately lose tension in their muscles, although rigor mortis will eventually reverse that for a time. The muscles that contract to create skin wrinkles will also relax in this period.

Elderly bodies will lose their well-earned wrinkles and be left with smooth, seamless skin.

Hiccups

If a body manages to combine the stiffening of muscles that occurs after death with the build-up of gasses from the decomposition of the digestive system, it could cause the body’s vocal chords to moan.

This can be quite bewildering if you’ve never experienced it before, but it’s no surprise to those who regularly deal with corpses.

“Can I see it?”

After death, the muscle tissues continue to live for a little while. As the nervous system shuts down, the muscle reflexes may kick in, cause the body to twitch.

It’s the same thing that occurs when the doctor taps you below the knee with a little hammer. It’s just the body’s reflexes at work.

Even once a body has been embalmed, the decomposition process continues, albeit at a slower pace. This causes a problem for mausoleums, who store resting bodies above ground in sealed coffins.

If the process creates too much gas, it can cause the coffin to explode, leaking smelly liquefied human remains.