The Thread Of Life
The History he first volume of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery, and the Collateral Branches of Science, published in 1812, gives a sense of the constraints faced by surgeons, and the mettle required of patients, in the era before anesthesia and antisepsis. In the April issue for that year, John Collins Warren, surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and son of one of the founders of Harvard Medical School, published a case report describing a
new approach to the treatment of cataracts.1 Until that time, the prevalent method of cataract treatment was “couching,” a procedure that involved inserting a curved needle into the orbit and using it to push the clouded lens back and out of the line of sight.2 Warren’s patient had undergone six such attempts without lasting success and was now blind. Warren undertook a more radical and invasive procedure — actual removal of the left cataract. He described the oper-
-ation, performed before the students of Harvard Medical School, as follows: The eye-lids were separated by the thumb and finger of the left hand, and then, a broad cornea knife was pushed through the cornea at the outer angle of the eye, till its point approached the opposite side of the cornea. The knife was then withdrawn, and the aqueous humour being discharged, was immediately followed by a protrusion of the iris. Into the collapsed orbit of this
The Heart
The heart is the body’s engine room, responsible for pumping life-sustaining blood via a 60,000-mile-long (97,000-kilometer-long) network of vessels. The organ works ceaselessly, beating 100,000 times a day, 40 million times a year—in total
4locking up three billion heartbeats over an average lifetime. It keeps the body freshly supplied with oxygen and nutrients, while clearing away harmful waste matter. The fetal heart evolves through several different
stages inside the womb, first resembling a fish’s heart, then a frog’s, which has two chambers, then a snake’s, with three, before finally adopting the four-chambered structure of the human heart.
The End - part 1 When you die your heart stops pumping blood around your body, thus depriving your cells of oxygen, which rapidly begin to die. Decomposing starts almost immediately, with the skin going through several changes in colour as the blood stops cir-
culating leaving the body an ashen color. However different cells die at different rates. For example, brain cells die within a few minutes, whilst skin cells can survive over 24 hours after death. Soon after death rigor mortis occurs, which is caused by a
complex chemical reaction (involving lactic acid and myosin), which forms a gel like substance which creates the body’s stiffness. Rigor mortis lasts approximately 24 hours (depending upon ambient temperature).
The Kidneys
The main role of the kidneys is to filter waste products from the blood and convert them to urine. If the kidneys lose this ability, waste products can build up, which is potentially life-threatening.
This loss of kidney function, known as end-stage chronic kidney disease or kidney failure, is the most common reason for needing a kidney transplant. It’s possible to partially replicate the functions of the kidney using a blood filtering procedure known as dialysis. However, this can be inconvenient and time-consuming, so a kidney transplant is the treatment of choice for kidney failure whenever possible.
The end - Part 2 Upon death blood also starts to settle in the those parts of the body that are closest to the ground, turning the top part grayish white and waxy looking, whilst darkening the underside. This results in a deep redbrown stain. For example if a person was to die and keel over head-first then the blood would settle in their head, which would result in a bruised-like stain to the face and neck. Body extremities will naturally turn blue within 8-12 hours without intervention (eg embalming). Funeral directors (Undertakers) tend to lift the head of a corpse in the coffin in order to prevent discolouring of the face. They also make sure that the body is properly groomed. The hair will be washed and combed, while the face is skillfully made-up using cosmetics that match as close as possible the person’s natural skin colour as when they were alive. Undertakers also use glue to