Dead body (and dead butt): Not something you expect to see at the pediatrician's

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This afternoon was RuffLlama’s 2-year appointment with the pediatrician, whose office is in a large multi-story medical building shared with a diverse number of other medical professionals. When we got there, I really had to go to the bathroom, but the hallway bathroom by the elevators was locked (meaning, occupied). I tried going back several minutes later, but it was still locked. I ended up using the bathroom in the pediatrician’s office.

When we left, there were about 4-5 cleaning ladies and a paramedic at that same bathroom by the elevator, its door now wide open. I heard the paramedic saying he couldn’t find a pulse, and something about her body being cool and having levidity (had to look that up–means an unusual lack of color to the skin). I briefly glanced past the paramedic and saw an older woman naked from the waist down, lying on her side, then quickly turned away. We continued straight to the elevator and kept out of the way the few seconds it took to await the doors opening, but it was impossible to not overhear the sad details–we were three feet from everything.

I’m guessing a cleaning lady came by the clean the bathroom, knocked, and when there was no answer used her key to open it and saw this poor woman.

The ambulance and fire truck was arriving as we left. This was very exciting for vehicularly obsessed RuffLlama.

I started thinking as we passed the police cars and fire trucks pulling into the parking lot…When I first tried to use that bathroom, it was 3:45pm. When we left at 5pm, the paramedic and cleaning ladies were there. Thinking about this, I called the pediatrician’s office and told one of the girls in the office she might want to inform the paramedics that I had tried using that restroom twice well over an hour beforehand, and it was locked and quiet (no “Yes, I’m in here” when I wiggled the knob either time,). Not sure if it matters, but it might be useful for someone to know.

I’m not sure how old she was because, well, I just saw bare butt and thighs. Geez, how undignified a way to go.

I wonder who she is (was), and who she was there to see, and if she had been complaining of some symptoms that led to her demise, and that’s why she was in a medical building to begin with. Wonder if someone is waiting for her, and if she was still alive or semi-conscious either time I wiggled the knob.

It’s peculiar that the toilet is such a common place for someone to die. My hairdresser–a good friend of 9 years–just lost his father, and that’s where they found him, too.

2

Once upon a time there was either a thread here or a Straight Dope column about the fact that a nerve with pretty profound parasympathetic powers runs right by the anus; when one defecates, it is pressed hard enough to be stimulated (think about it–your vision gets a little gray right about then, doesn’t it?) If a person already has feeble vital signs, stimulation of this nerve is enough to knock them unconscious. Thus, an unexpectedly large number of elderly people die on the toilet.

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I also think that, when you’re feeling unwell, sometimes you think going to the bathroom might help. Or it could be a heart attack. My father had what he said was indigestion, and went off to the men’s room, never to be seen alive again.

4

A former co-worker of mine died while on the pot. He was a pretty big guy and the paramedics could not open the door to the toilet. Factory facilities was called and had to remove the door to get him out. Definitely not the way I want to go.

5

Correction. It’s lividity.

It’s not a lack of color — it’s actually a purpling/reddening of the skin where the blood settles. Detectives/investigators will use lividity to tell whether a body is still in the same position that it was in when the person died. It also generally means someone is D-E-A-D. Not, “get an ambulance” dead, but “get the coroner” dead.

6

Jeezum…

My grandpa also died in the john, but not ON the john.

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I remember seeing the SD column about this, Sattua, but did not recall the precise mechanism behind the correlation. Thanks for the reminder–fascinating, and odd, how the body works (or doesn’t).

Hilarity, I think that’s part of it, too–you don’t feel well, you go to the bathroom. My grandfather died preparing a hot bath and was found slumped over the tub, and a young friend (just 21 :frowning: ) died this past September from a heart attack that followed a diabetic coma. They found her unconscious in a bathtub of cold water one morning–her roommates had last seen her the night before getting ready to take a hot bath.

Definitely not the way I want to go, either. Actually, there are many ways I don’t want to go–I’ll just add this one to the list. Dying in my sleep at the age of 120 after 119 1/2 years of wild and crazy antics and good health still sounds good.

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Dammit! I was guessing on spelling, and since I got some hits when I Googled it (misspelled) thought I might have had it. But it also explains why what I found and defined it as here wasn’t accurate, either (although the actual quote said “an unusual lack of color, as in with a bruise”–I don’t think of bruising as a lack of color, but your more precise definition makes more sense of what they were trying to say).

From the Wiki article on livor mortis, or postmortem lividity:

Makes me really wonder if I heard what I thought I heard–maybe it was that her body was cold, but there wasn’t lividity? Seems like she’d have to have been in there a LONG freakin’ time for it to have set in, even partially. Then again, maybe no one noticed throughout the hours of the day as everyone who had tried to use that bathroom did as I did and used the bathrooms in the various medical offices, rather than this one that is open to the whole floor.

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Blood begins to settle shortly after death, so the color begins to show within the 20 minutes quoted. The fact that she was cold is more telling. It takes a while for body temp to cool off that much.

Very sad. Poor lady.

10

“Vera! We’ve got another stiff in the john.”

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:slight_smile: I wondered if anyone would quote that. Good movie.
Sorry about the woman. :frowning:

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Vagus Nerve.

The process is called a Valsalva manuver

http://breathing.com/articles/valsalvas-maneuver.htm

It explains it pretty simply here.

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Unless the parametics meant “levity”. Which might not be out of the question, given the circumstances. :smiley:

Great…now I have to take a crap. Well, if you don’t hear back from me…

14

Okay, yah got me…what movie is the “Vera” line from?

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9 to 5

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Huh! Funny I didn’t remember that line–I love that movie. I’m trying to remember when and how that line was said; did the alcoholic secretary say it? Seem to think it had to do with her finding a bound and gagged Dabney Coleman. Interesting bit of trivia from the IMDB about it: the 747 plane showed in the scene where what’s-her-name takes off to learn French is the same one later involved in the horrific TWA flight 800 crash.

Good times, everybody! Dead body in a bathroom, playful quote from a great movie results in a quip about a jet that exploded mid-flight. Lovely.

So, to perk things up a bit: FTR, RuffLlama’s appointment went otherwise well. He’s is 90th percentile in height and 93rd in weight (he’s a TALL kid!), showed off all developmental milestones (and had long surpassed them), and fussed when he got the shot but stopped when he was given a train sticker. Trains fix everything. Well, almost everything.

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Isn’t that what happened to Elvis?

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I think I need to install a train in my bathroom. I wonder if it will cost $41,000.

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Nah, it’s after the girls return the body to the hospital that they thought was Dabney Coleman’s but wasn’t. The cleaning lady comes in, looks at the body in the wheelchair covered in the sheet, turns around and shouts, “Vera, we’ve got another stiff in the john!”

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I still remember my first dead body episode. I was about 4 and a elderly lady leaning over some frozen food dropped to the floor dead. She was less than 10 feet away when it happened. Ma moved us on and did the shopping, while the ambulance came and hauled her away. She left through the doors at the same time we were in line to check out.