Preparing The Autopsied Body

In a very early post, I gave a thorough description of how to embalm a body. This post will describe how to embalm a body that has been autopsied, or "posted" (from "post-mortem"), as we refer to it in the industry. As you may know from watching the various forensic shows, both fictional and true-life, the body is opened by making an incision from each shoulder down to the center of the chest, then from the center of the chest to the groin. This is called the "Y" incision, because it looks exactly like the letter Y.

In a full autopsy, all of the internal organs, as well as the brain, will be removed and examined. When the autopsy is completed, and the organs have been examined, they are placed in a plastic bag, which is placed in the body cavity. The calvarium (top part of the skull) is placed back in position, and the scalp pulled back down into place to hold the calvarium in place. The body is then sutured closed with a few very large (about 8" to 12" long) sutures. When the funeral home receives the body, one of the first things to be done is to clean the top of the skull. The way we do it is to wash it thoroughly, dry it off then treat it with a drying powder, which absorbs any residual blood and/or moisture from the bony material. Then we remove the viscera bag, open it up and pour a bottle of cavity fluid in. We then take the trocar, a sharp, hollow tube, and puncture the organs to permit the cavity fluid to work on the insides of the organs. We then close the bag and set it aside for the time being. We take the chest plate (that part of the ribcage and sternum the pathologist cut away to gain access to the chest cavity) and cover it with a powdered formaldehyde, called para-formaldehyde, and set that aside.

We then locate all the major vessels and inject each limb with the embalming solution. We inject the left and right legs through the femoral arteries, the left and right arms through the sub-clavian arteries, and we inject the head through the left and right carotid arteries. Once we have injected the limbs, we then treat the torso. Remember that the torso has been laid wide open due to the "Y" incision. The flaps of skin that fold back to expose the body cavity are about an inch or so thick, full of fatty tissue. The embalmer uses a special trocar to deliver fluids to as much of these flaps as possible. The trocar is inserted into this tissue to various lengths while embalming fluid flows through the trocar and into the tissues. The embalmer works the entire torso in this manner, delivering fluid to as much of the tissue as possible. He also injects any soft tissues on the inside of the body cavity, again, trying to reach as many areas of the torsal tissue as possible.

While one person is treating the torso, we usually have a second person working on the head. The skull cavity is cleaned and dried, sprinkled with paraformaldehyde or other moisture-absorbing materials, then packed with cotton. Then the calvarium is put back into position and secured to the skull with devices known as calvarium clamps. These are metal clamps which hold the calvarium firmly in place. The scalp is pulled back down over the top of the skull and sutured closed. Sometimes we use a fine black thread, or if the person has a very thick head of hair, we will just use regular wax string.

Once the body has been hypodermically injected, we vaccuum out as much excess fluid as possible from the cavity. The cavity itself is then treated with a solution to dry up excess moisture and sear the tissues. We use a product called Dryene. We then sprinkle some para-formaldehyde into the body cavity, then place the viscera (internal organs) back into the cavity. As I mentioned in yet another post, some embalmers simply place the bag in the cavity and suture the body shut. However, my bosses prefer to actually remove the viscera from the bag and place them back in the body. The reason for this is we will put a few organs in, sprinkle the para-formaldehyde, put more organs in, sprinkle more para-formaldehyde, etc. until all the viscera have been placed in the body. This way we can be sure all the organs have been effectively treated. Somebody asked me once if we had to put the organs back in their proper place. No, we just want everything back in the body, we don't care what goes where. We then suture the body closed, which is very time consuming due to the large number of stitches required. We then bathe the body, then lay down a layer of glue on top of the sutures, then cover the sutures with a layer of cotton strips. Most, if not all, funeral homes will charge an extra fee for preparing a body that has been autopsied; now you know why. This process can take two embalmers working together anywhere from two to four hours to complete, depending on the condition of the body and other factors.