Unless they’re family members or good friends of ours, there are certain job secrets and stories regular people never get to hear, especially when those jobs deal with dead bodies.
This is probably why this question posed by u/Kalajasavakuy on r/AskReddit racked up nearly 70,000 upvotes in a days’ time: “Autopsy doctors of Reddit, what was the biggest revelation you had to a person’s death after you carried out the procedure?”
Unlike many replies on AskReddit threads that go along the lines of “not me, but someone I know…” most of the folks commenting to share their stories were in fact autopsy doctors and medical examiners.
Though fair warning: these stories are not for the faint of heart. Also…learn how to do the Heimlich maneuver. Apparently, thousands of people die every year just from choking on their own food. The more you know!
1.
I did the autopsy of both a robber and his victim. The robber shot the victim in the back when he tried to escape in a motorcycle, and the robber was shot by the police in the exact same situation.
What’s interesting is that they both died by exactly the same lesion. Both of them had their 4th lumbar vertebra shattered and their aorta (main artery of the body) sectioned at the same level. I thought of it like an extreme example of instant karma.—u/quiet-sorrow
2.
When my parents were in medical school they attended an autopsy of a patient who had died in a car accident
Autopsy revealed that apparently this guy had survived a chest shot in Vietnam years ago that the surgeons/medics left in rather than perform risky surgery, the accident had migrated the bullet to his heart and was ruled the cause of death—u/ZCYCS
3.
Forensic pathologist here.
Got a case where it’s a “house fire” death. On exam he’s got multiple, textbook stab & incised wounds. I spend the next 30 minutes getting gaslighted quizzed by PD about “Are you sure?” because they thought this was a straightforward house fire. Un-fun fact: fires not an uncommon way for people to try to conceal a homicide.—u/4n64u
4.
Saw a guy who had been shot in the head a couple of times. Three definite entries and a blown out skull but police only found one bullet. Couldn’t find the other bullet in his head at all. Assumed the police missed it.
Went on as normal with the autopsy until we got to the chest cavity. The other bullet was just chilling beside his lung. Turns out it entered the skull, hit the inside, ricocheted down his neck and into the chest. That was pretty wild—u/jason_x_90
5.
My friend once cremated a lady and when they pulled the table out there were 3 sets of forceps sitting there.
Most likely she died in surgery but I always thought it was crazy those were left in and whatever metal they’re made of clearly has a higher melting point than cremation temps—u/DaughterEarth
6.
Worked at an animal hospital. They did autopsies for zoos all the time. An alligator died, and they shipped it to the hospital, refrigerated etc to stop the decay. They took it out and put it up on the table. After doing all the paperwork, they started opening up the alligator. After the first cut, the alligator opened its eyes. Turns out it wasn’t dead, the hospital vet mistook an illness for death and the low temperature put it basically into a coma.—u/BurrShotFirst1804
7.
There was this girl my mum grew up with on an army base. She had a really long plait she used to chew on in her sleep, and she choked to death on a hairball once. Apparently it was the size of a kiwi fruit lodged in her throat.—u/PintmasterPaul
8.
I worked at a coroner’s office for a while and once we had a guy who we thought had died from an OD on meth. Well we started the autopsy and i went to cut his lungs out and blueberry muffin mix started coming out of them. I stuck my finger in his mouth and it was full of blueberry muffin mix. And it was in throat. Turns out he got just high enough to pass out while eating the muffin mix and he ended up choking to death.—u/Dink-a-sorous
9.
A skeleton was found in the near mountains, it was very clear he died in an accident 20+ years ago, however, he had to be identified via DNA. Turned out his dad was not his dad, but his uncle. Sparked a whole public family drama show, cause the family was well known in my area—u/Zirael_Swallow
10.
I heard a story once about a guy who died, and completely unrelated to the ‘main complaint’ during the autopsy they found a grapefruit in his @ss
Apparently it had just been there the whole time—u/cara27hhh