*Warning: Not for the faint hearted. Thank you.
As we opened the door leading to the main room, upbeat music filled our ears. I walked in, saw other doctors and staff and due to the nature of the music, greeted them like party-people.
The stench was terrible. The floor was wet. Like a wet market. The subject of interest laid flat on a metal table.
Welcome to the professional butcher room.
This is my first experience witnessing an autopsy.
Dental team was called because we were the primary team. He passed away in ICU.
Meena and I constantly look at each other. I honestly don’t know what is the conduct and culture here. I would have thought perhaps the atmosphere should be solemn as a respect for the deceased. But the deceased is deceased. And to the Forensic staffs, this is their bread and butter. They do this everyday.
I looked at our ex-patient. He was him alright. I had seen him alive, barely. His body was basically supported by machines for the past few days. Lying on the metal table, naked, I (and I would say for all) am looking at the body just as a body, where the soul and spirit had departed. Meena later asked me “Where did soul and spirit come from?”
The knife is probably 1 foot long and really sharp. The coroners split his chest skin with one incision, and dissected the layers underneath.
Coroners then used a saw and cut out the sternum, gaining entry to the thoracic cavity. Once he punctured the inner layer, fluid gushed out. Followed by the red fluid which emitted the stale smell.
“Boss, lungs drowning.”
In wide cuts and dissections, the coroners scooped out the lungs and the heart, and passed them to the pathologist who examined the organs carefully. Anything that possibly caused this man his life, or leading to his death.
Soon, the coroners used a really large suture and a J-hook needle which kinda look like a meat hook to sew back the body of the deceased. They have to give him back to his family who were waiting outside patiently. In about 15 minutes, I finished seeing my first autopsy experience in my life. Probably my last too.
aL is here 