Defecating at moment of death

[snopes]

Comment: Recently, I watched the movie "In Cold Blood" for the first time.
In it, Robert Blake is hanged, just as Saddam was.

The movie claims that everyone defecates at the monent of death. Is it
just that the lower bowel empties, or do you go when you go, even if you
took precautions beorehand? I just wondered, since the reports say Saddam
refused an offer to use the toilet just before he was hung.

[Astra]

It happens in the South Park universe

[hambubba]

It doesn't help that your last thought is "well, SHIT."

[Morrigan]

It also happened in a movie I watched once, that I can't remember the name of. I want to say that it was a serial killer movie, based on a true story, but I can't remember if it was about Dahmer or the other tall guy. (Not the Son of Sam...the one that used his good looks to get girls to trust him. Damn...)

Morrigan

[para1]

Ted Bundy??

[Jenn]

Ted Bundy, Morrigan?

[vison]

I have only been present at the death of one person and it didn't happen. Perhaps it has to be violent death?

[Morrigan]

Originally Posted by para1

Ted Bundy??

Originally Posted by Jenn

Ted Bundy, Morrigan?

Yeah-that's him! Thanks!

Actually, thinking back on it, I think it was him that the movie was about. But I can't remember the title (of course, I only watched it once, four years ago.)

Morrigan

[para1]

Morrigan,

I saw the movie about the execution of the guy in Utah...Gary Gilmore. He was executed by a firing squad...I wonder if the manner of death matters at all?

I wouldn't say everybody poops at the moment of death, but some people do. And it doesn't have to be a violent death.

I've seen approximately a dozen people either at the moment they died or immediately after. All were elderly and very ill. I can only remember three or four pooping, and two of those also vomited. They hadn't had any food, and very little or no water, for at least a day beforehand, so I don't know what exactly they had coming out. It wasn't a forceful bowel movement or emesis, however, more like an ooze from both ends or a baby spitting up.

What's really unnerving is when you move the body and it groans or sighs as the last bit of breath escapes...the first dead person I had to deal with did that and I was nearly the one who crapped.

[Astra]

In all seriousness, it's a side-effect of the muscles relaxing upon death. The reason it gets mentioned more often with hanging is because the sharp downward force and gravity encourage the process a bit.

Originally Posted by Astra

It happens in the South Park universe

Sadly (or morbidly, perhaps) that was also my first thought when I saw the title of this thread. The Wal-Mart episode was classic, and the allusion in the death of Chef episode was just the icing on the cake.

[LittleDuck]

First time I ever heard of this was in a Dean Koontz novel, though the name escapes me right now. I recall the situation, though. Two police detectives were entering an apartment where a guy was high on drugs. He kept yelling about, "Cocodrillos," and shot one of the detectives. As the detective was dying, he told his partner he was ashamed because he'd s*** himself.

Which now brings me to the other thing I thought of, reading the thread topic: Oops I Crapped My Pants. "I'm wearing them and I just did."

[franjava]

I've seen quite a few people die as a result of natural causes and car accidents (never saw "violent" deaths such as shootings and whatnot.) Only one of those people had deficated. He was already in rigor mortis when we got to him and there was a small amount of poo in his undies. Not everyone urinated on themselves, either. Though, that happened more often. I think it depends on what's in there in the first place, and I see it more as happening when rigor mortis sets in. I am not a doctor, though, so take everything I've said with a grain of salt.

[Dreams of Thinking Machines]

Unsuprisingly, people that were executed via the use of electricty often defecated at the moment of death. I think some prisons even required the use of rubber diapers because of this.

[llewtrah]

After death the muscles relax. The anal sphincter is a muscle and it relaxes. If the rectum contains sufficient faeces this may be excreted (a bit like air being let out of a balloon I guess). And as others have said, if ther person is upright, once the sphincter relaxes, gravity will do its bit.

[STF]

Originally Posted by Astra

It happens in the South Park universe

Everything I know I learned from Eric Cartman.

[Cervus]

I've never been present at the death of a human, but have witnessed animal deaths and assisted with euthanization. Like llewtrah said, the relaxation of the sphincter or bladder muscles upon death may cause things to be excreted. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. It's usually not forceful - that is, not an explosion. More like a slow release.

Is it just that the lower bowel empties, or do you go when you go, even if you took precautions beorehand?

If there's nothing to excrete, nothing will come out. If there's something in there, it might come out. Or not.

[Sara@home]

It would seem whatever comes out the relaxed sphincter would have to be liquidy and close to the anus. It's not like anyone takes a major healthy dump at the time of death.

I witness my neighbour die a year ago, he went into cardiac arrest and was pretty much dead before hitting the ground, which I didn't know that at the time, and was giving him CPR until the ambulance arrived, I noticed that he had wet his pants and was informed by the paramedics that if you have a full bladder you will wet yourself because your body is no longer functioning and cannot hold it, so I'm assuming that it's the same thing for bowel movements.