• Question: have you ever done a post mortem on someone who is still alive?

    Asked by evechapman4 to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 25 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      I haven’t because…
      1. I’m not a pathologist!
      2. If the person was still alive it wouldn’t be a post mortem! The phrase comes from the latin – post means after and mortem means death, so in a way its impossible to do a real ‘post mortem’ on someone who is still alive.
      In the past people were sometimes thought to be dead when they weren’t. In the Victorian times, people were really worried about this. Some even had mechanisms attached to their coffins so that they could press a button if they woke up and had been buried alive and a little flag would pop up at the surface to let people know they were still alive. Nowadays we have lots of tests to check that someone really is dead before they are sent to the morgue.

    • Photo: Vee Mitchell

      Vee Mitchell answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Not something I would do in my job. I think you’ll find that the person is always dead when they do a post mortem.
      I did have the opportunity to go and see a post mortem being done when I was at university but I chickened out!

    • Photo: Bob Bonwick

      Bob Bonwick answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Ok, interesting question. No is the answer. I have seen a body sit up (due to gas) but as far as I know this doesn’t happen as every possible vital sign is checked when a person is pronounced dead, so it’s very very difficult to send a person to the mortuary without everything checked and establised first.

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