A woman who works in a mortuary has shared some little known facts about her morbid job.
Emma Yates, an anatomical pathology technician from London, also debunked some of the myths about death on her TikTok page, which has left many people amazed.
According to Emma, one of the most common myths about death is that dead bodies are always stiff, however she revealed that this only occurs for around 36 hours after death before bodies return to being limp.
Another common myth about death suggests that a body’s nails and hair can still grow after death.
Emma says this is not true but more of an optical illusion, as the skin tends to shrink from dehydration, giving the impression these parts are still growing.
Her video titled “Mr Dibbs (Emma’s cat) and I bust your myths about dead bodies” racked up nearly 15,000 views and thousands of comments from curious viewers wanting to know more.
She also revealed that people tend to think there is no blood in the body because it’s dead, but that isn’t the case.
She explained, “When you do post-mortems, the blood will pull to the base of the body so if you’re lying on your back it will pull to the back of your body.”
Another common misconception is that dead bodies can randomly sit up but Emma assured that “dead bodies do not sit up on the post-mortem table.”
She said, “Sometimes there is gas left in the body so the muscles will twitch a little bit but you’ll need a lot of muscle to sit up and dead bodies don’t have that.”
One person commented, “I work in a hospital and I always hope the dead are treated with respect, but humour must be essential in a mortuary.”
Emma replied to the healthcare worker, “We always treat them with respect just as you would a living patient. Humour helps you get through the worst days.”
Image credits: TikTok / Getty Images
This article first appeared on OverSixty.