I’m not talking about modern times, where they’ve been filled with embalming fluid and frozen.
I’m reading a book called The Knife Man, about anatomy/dissection and surgery in the 1700’s, which is really well annotated - about 20-30 notes per chapter.
EXCEPT. In chapter 3, the author tells us of the hazards of attempted executions by hanging not quite doing the job, and…
…with no supporting evidence. My bs-detector pinged - is there any evidence that a failed “executionee” woke up in a dissecting room, either just before, or after, being cut open?
Thanks - I’ve read that article before but didn’t remember the dissection cases that are specifically mentioned (Anne Greene, William Duell, some unnamed guy) deep into the article. That’s perfect.
In fuction, this happens to Dr. Pangloss at one point in Voltaire’s Candide.
It also happens in the movie The Oblong Box (although not in the Edgar Allan Poe story whose name it shares) when Alister Williamson’s character (Vincent Price’s character’s brother) is delivered as a putative corpse to Christopher Lee’s character. When the coffin is opened, Williamson grabs Lee by the neck. Clearly an uncooperative corpse.
Naturally the part of that article that most interested me was the claim that in 1984 a pathologist started doing an autopsy when the victim awoke and grabbed the pathologist by the throat (supposedly causing him to die of fright). :dubious:
I can’t find the original article which contained this gem, but let’s just say I’m not entirely convinced it isn’t an urban legend.
None of my autopsy patients have awakened on the dissecting table (a real shame, since if they did I wouldn’t have to finish doing the post or write up the results, except for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not). I always do a brief physical exam before the incisions are made, and even with somewhat atrophied physical diagnosis skills, I think I’d be able to tell if the person was still alive.
I’ve been tempted in writing up the report of my gross (as opposed to microscopic) pathologic findings, to include that the patient’s pupils were reactive to light and accommodation, just to see if anyone actually reads the report in detail.
Is it true that when a “dead” person is being prepared for organ harvesting, the body is first anaesthetised?
I understand that this is done because in the past it was found that many “brain dead” people became visibly agitated when the doctors started to remove body parts. This was distressing to the harvest crew.
On a parallel line: isn’t the reason that traditional wakes are held is due to the fact that in the past “dead” people would wake up during the burial process, and were very unimpressed to find themselves in coffins?
