What happens to the body when someone dies?
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
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Jude Ignatius (JI)
from Coimbatore
A person is declared to be dead, when the heart stops beating, respiration drops and when the brain is totally dead. Once the person is dead, the jaws fall open and the eyelids lose their tension and relax. And then, the body slowly starts to lose heat. The body temperature begins to drop until it matches the surroundings (this is called death chill). As the heart stops pumping, all the blood settles in the lower parts of the body, making the skin bluish purple (this is called livor mortis). Later the muscles start to contract (this is called rigor mortis). This can last upto 24-84 hours and then it will relax. After this, the body starts decomposing. As the blood circulation and respiration has stopped, the body can neither receive oxygen nor let out the toxic by-products like CO2. So, these toxic by-products produce an acidic environment inside the cells, causing their enzymes to eat themselves inside out. We have different microorganisms on our gut, on our skin etc. As there is no immune system to control these microorganisms. They travel to different parts of our body and start to break down the tissues and organs of our body, releasing different gases. These gases attract insects and maggots. Which later, will decompose the body and only the bones will be left. Later, the skeleton will decompose too.
