I’m a ME, and I’ve never had anyone wake up during an autopsy, and I hope I never do. I agree with the comments about the lungs. They do not inflate by themselves, but require some element of a relative vacuum within the chest cavity to couple the contraction of the diaphragm = expansion of the chest cavity = expansion of the lungs = low pressure in the lungs = air go in. Even a small break in the chest cavity, such as happens in a pneumothorax, causes breathing problems. A total vacuum failure would render the lungs useless.
That said, even if someone could lickety split put down a breathing tube, the person would still have a slim to none chance. While the subcutaneous and chest wall vessels cut during the opening procedures are small and superficial and would only ooze a bit of blood (and yes, bodies do bleed postmortem, especially when fresh), each rib has a parallel artery right underneath it. When breached those can bleed like stink, and cutting all of them would in all likelihood be fatal before anyone could do anything about it. It would also be an inattentive prosector indeed who would not notice something unusual at that point!
As for an autopsy suite being “sterile”, the sandwich comment says it all.
Absolutely not survivable. Not a bat’s chance. Autopsy rooms don’t have resuscitation equipment. Loss of the chest wall integrity mandates immediate intubation. Blood loss unmanageable. Autopsy equipment is highly contaminated. Pathologists cannot handle multiple trauma. On and on…
How, uh, “fresh” was the patient being autopsied? Had he spent any time being refrigerated? He might have been hypothermic, too, affecting his chances of recovery.
I’m pretty sure (but may be wrong) that hypothermia may help minimize brain damage, and lessens blood loss from superficial capillaries. I don’t think it helps much with loss of breathing ability and bleeding from severed arteries.
People have been clinically dead while hypothermic for more than half an hour, and made full recoveries. It might buy enough time for the autopsy patient to be properly treated for their injuries and resuscitated.
For those still worrying about autopsy prosectors unintentionally creating fatal wounds by cutting into the chest cavities of non-cadavers:
Initial autopsy incisions do not go right through ribs into the chest cavity. The first cuts only involve skin and subcutaneous tissue, and in a living person should bleed immediately and drastically enough to alert even the most inattentive diener or pathologist that something is amiss (a Code Blue in a morgue would be rather…interesting).
In reference to the “sterile” nature of operating rooms - apart from a relatively small area i.e. encompassing the operating field and instruments, they’re not all that germ-free either. I mean, if my sandwich fell on the floor in the O.R. I’d still give up on it.
