Autopsy questions

After 12 years, there will be no brain left. The soft tissue of the brain actually liquifies rather quickly. The ancient Egyptians knew this, too. The first thing they removed from the body during the mummification process was the brain- removed through the nose with a long hook.
There wouldn't likely be much left, if anything, of the "abrasions", so the stun gun issue wouldn't get resolved either.
That window of opportunity slammed shut long ago. The police tried to get the coroner to keep JBR's body longer in case something was missed, but Hunter's man Hofstrom accused the police of trying to hold the body for ransom in exchange for cooperation from the family. The coroner refused to cooperate too- he could have told the DA the extra time would be useful. Yet another example of how the DA's office manipulated this case so it could remain unsolvable.

 

Did you at one time study for the medical field, DeeDee? Would you believe I just watched a DVD about King Tut yesterday, and I didn't realize I had bought a horror movie? I love anything Egyptian. The Villain in the movie described what he was going to do to the poor guy on the operating table. Remove his brain exactly like you just stated above and stuck the hook gadget up the poor guy's nose Isn't that a coincidence? No! I didn't continue to watch it.

Yes, I remember reading all about the Hunter and Hofstrom charade, but someone like the FBI should have stepped in. I don't understand why someone didn't stop the Ramseys. They must have been smiling when they left with JonBenét's body. What a nerve these Ramseys had to get away with so much. I'm hoping Karma is catching up with John Ramsey.

 

No, I have never studied anything in the medical field. I studied fine art. But I have been interested in ancient Egypt ever since I was a small child, as was my own daughter as well. She was 3 when the King Tut treasures first came to the US, and though we didn't go to New York to see them, I bought the catalog filled with photographs of the exhibit. It was her favorite book, and she knew what each of the treasures was and what they were used for. I can spend days in the Egyptian exhibits at the British Museum (they have the largest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities outside of Cairo). Their funerary practices are so beyond any other comparable civilization.
Karma always gets us. Always. There was no way to stop the Rs outside of an arrest warrant and the buck stopped with the DA. And stop the buck he did! IMHO, this case was both solved and lost in the first day. They all know who did it, though the particulars are unknown. The case was rendered unable to be prosecuted right from the get-go, stymied by the DA's office and once they got lawyered up- well, that was that.

 

exsanguination

exsanguination can also occur on a person that is alive. It is loss of blood. For example, if you are having some surgery on your leg where a tourniquet is used, and this is fairly common, when the surgeon is about to begin he will exsanguinate the leg by using an ace bandage or esmark roll (elastic type roll) and begin at the ankle and tightly wind it up the leg-forcing blood out of the leg and when the roll reaches the top the tourniquet will be inflated. Of course not all the blood leaves the leg but nonetheless this is called exsanguination also.

There is also exsanguination as a cause of death - simply the person died of loss of blood.

 

Thank you Texan for all the medical information you have posted over the years. It is good you are there to keep us well informed.

 

Thanks, Texan. I wasn't sure if the term "exsanguination" was also used when the person is alive. I thought only hemorrhage was used in that case.

 

yes

generally hemorrhage is losing blood but exsanguination is more like losing most of the blood. Could be from a limb or the whole body.

 

I'm in email contact with an emergecy room MD and have asked her about Natasha Richardson's and JonBenets head injuries. The MD's assessment is the same as yours, DeeDee.

She replied that NR and JB had very different types of head trauma. While both were the result of blunt force, JB's head trauma is classified as "catastrophic" - even immediate medical intervention could not have saved her, whereas NR could certainly have been saved with proper medical attention (which makes her case all the more tragic).

According to the MD, periods of lucidity are very common with the type of brain injury suffered by N. Richardson. Often, with head trauma of this nature, it will take hours, days, or weeks for the patient to expire, but JonBenet would have lost consciousness immediately and experts do agree that she would not have lived for more than 1 hour after the infliction of the head wound.

 

coagulation

I haven't been ignoring this question, I have been thinking how best to answer.
The time it takes for blood to coagulate can vary from person to person. This is why they will often check pt and ptt (these tests involve the clotting factors in your blood, thrombin and prothrombin) before you have major surgery where you may be expected to lose a fair amount of blood. As for how much it varies I have to admit that I just don't know but I am sure there is an expected normal range for these tests. I will try to find out an average time it would take blood to coagulate in a person that is alive. I will post the results of my research on this thread.

 

From what I have read, when blood clots in a live person, the process of clotting involves blood proteins and calcium. The whole process is referred to as a "cascade". I think that this is because any event that leads to a ruptured or punctured blood vessel in a live person initiates the body's response by setting in motion the activation of the clotting process.
Death halts this process, which is why many experts believe that blood does not clot in a dead person. IMO, the semi-fluid blood found in JBR's vagina indicated she died as the blood was in the clotting process.

 

ok

I have done some looking around and as I said, coagulation varies some from person to person but generally it takes around 15 minutes from the things I've read.

 

Seems I once read something about the semi-liquid fluid in the vagina possibly being...okay...brain drag here...remaining fluid from the damaged tissue that leaked out after death? Or leaked after the paintbrush assault?

That's probably not exactly what was said. Sorry, maybe it's in the thread where Sue discussed this, with Texan? Do you remember this, Texan?

At any rate, everything y'all are saying about the time involved after the head blow, to the strangulation death, with little blood coagulation or clotting...is it becoming plausible that both the head blow and strangulation occurred within 15 minutes?

 

maybe

Maybe that thread is where I read that the semifluid blood could have been something other than partially coagulated blood. I tried to find it but haven't been able to yet.

 

semifluid/semiliquid

The terms semifluid/semiliquid are mentioned twice in this section of the autopsy report (bolding mine):

Maybe it was this "semiliquid thin watery red fluid" which could have been something else than partially coagulated blood?

 

oh yea

Maybe so Rashomon. The reading I have been doing seems to point to semifluid being partially coagulated. Back to researching that with the semiliquid thing thrown into the mix.

 

I think I can set your mind at ease on this one. When my son fell off his skateboard and hit his head on the pavement, he was unconscious immediately. By the time I got to him, he was starting to come around, but he only had a very slight skull fracture, nothing like JonBenet's horrific injury. He was not acting normally, by any stretch, but he did regain consciousness and know his name, how old he was, etc.

I am 100% certain JonBenet never would have regained consciousness nor realized what had happened, or heard anything. My son didn't remember falling or even going to the hill, let alone going down it. JonBenet would have just fallen and never woken up. Whoever said the scream, if there was one, belonged to Patsy, was probably right.

 

I agree. Let's all hope the old cliche is true- that she never knew what hit her.

 

She may not have known what hit her, DeeDee, but she may have known WHO hit her(?).

 

What hit Her

It is true she may not have known that, but I believe she was afraid because I think that Patsy twisted her shirt and left her thumbprint in a rage - (I just happen to believe that is a thumbprint upsidedown - since my son came home with exactly the same thing after practice and when I asked him what it was, he said his sparring partner grabbed his Gi and twisted and left his thumbprint on his neck).

so JB, imo, had to have been scared. It is horrible - the whole thing.

 

OH, I think she did. So sad to think that the last face she saw was someone she thought loved her. Remember she screamed. Something was happening to her that frightened her and/or caused her great pain. And I think she knew who was responsible.