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Post Mortem-Brain Removal

  • 13-03-2018 5:45pm
    #1
    KM792
    Registered Users Posts: 252 ✭✭


    Forgive me if I am in the wrong forum here!
    Just wondering is it a common occurence for the brain to be removed and sent for further testing in certain cases?
    The case in question regards an elderly man(relative) in his early 80's who acquired a bleed on the brain and subsequently died last year.
    Family waited 7 weeks for brain to be returned separately following further testing and post mortem be completed while body was buried a week after death.
    Is this a common occurence in deaths arising from brain injuries?


Comments

  • #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 8,647 ✭[Deleted User]


    Was the death referred to coroner's court?


  • #3
    KM792
    Registered Users Posts: 252 ✭✭KM792


    Nope


  • #4
    Dingle_berry
    Registered Users Posts: 885 ✭✭✭Dingle_berry


    Yes, the brain is examined in every autopsy.

    The brain is different from other organs in that it has a very soft consistency. Like set custard. It has a higher water and fat content. So in order to look inside it it must be firmed up first. The best way to do this and maintain everything looking like things pathologists can recognise is a few weeks in formalin. Other organs don't have as much water & fat so aren't as soft and can be opened during the autopsy.


  • #5
    Ardillaun
    Registered Users Posts: 2,535 ✭✭✭Ardillaun


    The brain is often examined at autopsy, especially if it is a reportable case and both the cause (stroke, heart attack etc.) and manner (natural, accidental etc.) of death have to be established. Sometimes the cause of death is obvious, e.g. blunt vehicular trauma, and the brain can be buried with the body. In other cases, the brain has to be fixed in formalin before it can be properly examined and that takes weeks.

    In hospital autopsies conducted with the consent of the family, the procedure may be restricted to one particular area of interest as the family wishes e.g. chest, lung.


  • #6
    Ardillaun
    Registered Users Posts: 2,535 ✭✭✭Ardillaun


    I should add that autopsies are often a matter of exclusion. If a 70 year old man is found dead and an autopsy is requested, the pathologist is particularly interested in excluding foul play. If no really obvious cause of death is found, e.g. ruptured aortic aneurysm, it’s wiser to open the skull and make there are no basal skull fractures or other signs of cranial trauma there. Many Irish men of that age will have significant coronary artery disease and, in the absence of other pathology, that may end up as the most likely cause of death.


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  • #7
    PirateShampoo
    Registered Users Posts: 4,406 ✭✭✭PirateShampoo


    My mother's brain was removed during the autopsy, we were given a choice to either wait for it to be reunited with the body which could have taken weeks or donate it to science and continue as normal with the funeral plans.

    We picked the later.


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