What Immediately Happens After a Person Dies an Unattended Death?

As soon as a person dies, their body begins to decay. This is a natural part of the cycle of life, and yet it can be a distressing part of the aftermath of a death. If someone dies an unattended death—meaning no one was with them when it occurred—it can take hours, days, or even months before their body is found.

Depending on the timescales involved, this can be particularly distressing for the person who discovers them. However, it is also more common than you might suspect, so it’s highly useful to be aware of the processes involved and how to proceed if you do discover an unattended death.

What Happens to the Body?

While the decomposition of the body is unsettling, it’s necessary to understand the dangers present that you will be handing when working with forensic restoration.

First, the body will begin to cool down to match the ambient temperature, and gravity will cause the blood to pool at the part of the body closest to the ground. Rigor mortis, a state where the body’s muscles stiffen to full hardness, will occur between 8-12 hours after death, and it will last for around 12 more hours before the body regains flexibility. Through all this, the tiny bacteria naturally living in the human gut will start to multiply, essentially beginning to eat internal organs from the inside-out.

What Happens to the Surroundings?

The effect of a decomposing body on its surroundings will at first depend on the nature of their death. If the death was traumatic, for example with a homicide, blood and other fluids may already be exposed to the air. This means that bloodborne pathogens have already been released into the air.

However, even if this is not the case, during the process of decomposition, the body slowly secretes biohazardous liquids and gases into the air, making their immediate surroundings a breeding ground for pathogens and bacteria. It is dangerous effects such as this that makes services offering unattended death cleanup in Champaign, IL so vital.

What Happens When the Person is Discovered?

If you discover a person has died an unattended death, do not go near the body, as it may be a biological hazard. Call emergency services immediately, and keep your distance from the scene if you can. From here on, the process will vary depending on the initial assessment of the nature of death.

If the cause is considered suspicious, the coroner’s office will spend time gathering evidence at the scene, and the body may be taken for an autopsy. If it is judged natural or accidental (or once the evidence has been gathered) a professional biohazard technician will arrive to clean up the scene and ensure that no biohazardous pathogens remain to contaminate the area. These technicians will clean, sanitize, deodorize, and restore the room to its previously safe state. Most technicians understand this can be a traumatic time for anyone personally involved, and yet it is also important to clean the area as soon as possible to prevent property damage and further contamination.