Rainbow Serpent Woman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
perzephone) wrote2004-02-02 01:36 pm
perzephone) wrote2004-02-02 01:36 pm
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Autopsy Videos
Wellll, my bestest friend Ann sent me a DVD from rotten.com - an autopsy video, featuring Ken Noguchi from the LA County Coroner's Office. I watched it this morning. It was interesting, but in a way sort of anticlimatic.
The video was very subdued, almost as tho it wasn't made for others to view it at all, sort of like it was a video record of the autopsy. I expected splashy informational clips to be inserted here & there, like a Discovery Special or something. Maybe an interview w/Dr. Noguchi, or one of his assistants (aka dieners). I got the impression from how he was talking that one of the assistants actually worked in a forensics lab, because he'd ask "So, do you do this procedure for forensic analysis?" & the assistant would yea or nay it.
The good doctor was not gentle or elegant with how he cut into the woman's body (which had little blurs over her face, nipples & pubes) - he tugged & pulled at her w/the scalpels & knives. There were ripping sounds as he yanked the viscera away from the organs. I expected something a little more... uh, I don't know how to explain it. Elegant, maybe? I guess because they were performing an autopsy, it seemed as tho the quickness & efficiency was out of place, as though they weren't being careful enough or observational enough. The lighting in the room was bad, kind of dim & off-color. Like they were in a basement boiler room.
So he took each major organ out, trying to determine cause of death. She was an older, overweight woman but I was surprised at how little actual fatty tissue she had throughout her midsection. Doctors lead you to believe that if you're overweight your heart & liver are coated in a cocoon of choking fatty deposits. Her heart was very clean. Her lungs looked like velvet when cut open, smooth, pink & slightly mottled on the outside. Her right lung had evidence of pneumonia, which Dr. Noguchi determined as the cause of death.
Her liver... well, when they pulled her liver out, which actually looked better than any liver I've seen, including calves' livers in the grocery store. And my stomach took notice & rolled over w/a loud growl. My mouth started watering. I've got a whopper of a craving for liver & onions. I was kind of shocked at my stomach, asking it "What the hell is wrong with you, anyway!"
They left her stomach & intestines completely alone, didn't cut any samples off, nothing, just pulled them out & away from the inside of her body cavity so they could take out her spine & spinal cord. They cut her brain all to pieces, which for someone who's used to seeing whole or nearly whole brains in jars of fixative was strange. Because of the length of time since she'd been dead, her brain had already gotten very soft & once they started dissecting it, it sort of fell apart into a nearly-unrecognizable mass. A very sad thing to happen to a brain. I felt bad for the brain.
Another odd thing - there were no hanging scales. Dr. Noguchi would hold an organ in his hand, like her heart & say, "I'd say about 350 grams. A little enlarged." He passed her heart to one of the dieners & the diener hefted it & agreed. This method of measurement was used on the brain, the lungs, the liver - just the doctor estimating weight by the feel. I'd have liked to see them weigh the organs afterward to show how on the doctor was w/his guesses. It seemed cavalier & innacurate as all fuck-all. But, I remember watching the Cajun Cook, Sherriff Wilson, do the same thing w/salt - he'd poor salt in his hand, say "about 1/2 tsp." & then pour it into a measuring spoon & it would be almost exactly what he measured out.
And then it was pretty much all over - the body was sewed up, washed & put back into the body bag. The only thing that really got to me was seeing the featureless underside of her scalp folded over her face so they could access her skull & the brain cradled inside.
The video was very subdued, almost as tho it wasn't made for others to view it at all, sort of like it was a video record of the autopsy. I expected splashy informational clips to be inserted here & there, like a Discovery Special or something. Maybe an interview w/Dr. Noguchi, or one of his assistants (aka dieners). I got the impression from how he was talking that one of the assistants actually worked in a forensics lab, because he'd ask "So, do you do this procedure for forensic analysis?" & the assistant would yea or nay it.
The good doctor was not gentle or elegant with how he cut into the woman's body (which had little blurs over her face, nipples & pubes) - he tugged & pulled at her w/the scalpels & knives. There were ripping sounds as he yanked the viscera away from the organs. I expected something a little more... uh, I don't know how to explain it. Elegant, maybe? I guess because they were performing an autopsy, it seemed as tho the quickness & efficiency was out of place, as though they weren't being careful enough or observational enough. The lighting in the room was bad, kind of dim & off-color. Like they were in a basement boiler room.
So he took each major organ out, trying to determine cause of death. She was an older, overweight woman but I was surprised at how little actual fatty tissue she had throughout her midsection. Doctors lead you to believe that if you're overweight your heart & liver are coated in a cocoon of choking fatty deposits. Her heart was very clean. Her lungs looked like velvet when cut open, smooth, pink & slightly mottled on the outside. Her right lung had evidence of pneumonia, which Dr. Noguchi determined as the cause of death.
Her liver... well, when they pulled her liver out, which actually looked better than any liver I've seen, including calves' livers in the grocery store. And my stomach took notice & rolled over w/a loud growl. My mouth started watering. I've got a whopper of a craving for liver & onions. I was kind of shocked at my stomach, asking it "What the hell is wrong with you, anyway!"
They left her stomach & intestines completely alone, didn't cut any samples off, nothing, just pulled them out & away from the inside of her body cavity so they could take out her spine & spinal cord. They cut her brain all to pieces, which for someone who's used to seeing whole or nearly whole brains in jars of fixative was strange. Because of the length of time since she'd been dead, her brain had already gotten very soft & once they started dissecting it, it sort of fell apart into a nearly-unrecognizable mass. A very sad thing to happen to a brain. I felt bad for the brain.
Another odd thing - there were no hanging scales. Dr. Noguchi would hold an organ in his hand, like her heart & say, "I'd say about 350 grams. A little enlarged." He passed her heart to one of the dieners & the diener hefted it & agreed. This method of measurement was used on the brain, the lungs, the liver - just the doctor estimating weight by the feel. I'd have liked to see them weigh the organs afterward to show how on the doctor was w/his guesses. It seemed cavalier & innacurate as all fuck-all. But, I remember watching the Cajun Cook, Sherriff Wilson, do the same thing w/salt - he'd poor salt in his hand, say "about 1/2 tsp." & then pour it into a measuring spoon & it would be almost exactly what he measured out.
And then it was pretty much all over - the body was sewed up, washed & put back into the body bag. The only thing that really got to me was seeing the featureless underside of her scalp folded over her face so they could access her skull & the brain cradled inside.