10 Things That Happen To Your Body After You Die

7. The Post-Mortem #2

Once all of the organs are out, you can examine them more closely. A run-of-the-mill post-mortem will just be checking for natural causes like blocked arteries, heavy organs and fatty deposits.

In the case of suspicious or unexpected deaths, you may also be on the lookout for blunt trauma or signs, poisoning/overdose or even undetected tumours. This last one is particularly important as these kinds of conditions are often genetic and the relatives of the deceased would need to be warned.

The brain is removed through a little trapdoor in the back of the head (they put it there with a saw, you don't always have a trapdoor in the back of your head). The brain is extremely delicate unless it is preserved, with a consistency closer to under-set blancmange than a hunk of meat. Extreme care has to be taken so that it doesn't just slop out.

If there is no immediately obvious cause of death detectable by the naked eye then tissue samples are taken for analysis. A certificate is released with the cause of death. Then everything is put back in, the body is stitched back up and cleaned ready for funeral preparation.