Which finding is a sign of death?

Which finding is a sign of death?

• A. Normal breathing
• B. Pupillary response
• C. Blood pressure
• D. Rigor mortis

Answer: (D)

Rigor mortis is the postmortem stiffening of the body's muscles that signals death. After circulation and oxygen stop, muscle cells run out of ATP, so the myosin heads stay clamped to actin filaments and the muscles become temporarily rigid. This stiffness isn’t present while a person is alive and breathing; its appearance confirms that death has occurred. The pattern and timing help you interpret it: stiffness typically begins a few hours after death, often in the small muscles of the face and jaw, then moves to the neck and limbs. It reaches full rigidity around about a dozen hours after death and then gradually fades over the next day or two as decomposition advances. Other signs like normal breathing would indicate life, and while pupillary changes or the loss of pulse or blood pressure can occur with death, rigor mortis is a clear, recognizable postmortem change that helps confirm that death has already taken place.

Rigor mortis is the postmortem stiffening of the body's muscles that signals death. After circulation and oxygen stop, muscle cells run out of ATP, so the myosin heads stay clamped to actin filaments and the muscles become temporarily rigid. This stiffness isn’t present while a person is alive and breathing; its appearance confirms that death has occurred.

The pattern and timing help you interpret it: stiffness typically begins a few hours after death, often in the small muscles of the face and jaw, then moves to the neck and limbs. It reaches full rigidity around about a dozen hours after death and then gradually fades over the next day or two as decomposition advances.

Other signs like normal breathing would indicate life, and while pupillary changes or the loss of pulse or blood pressure can occur with death, rigor mortis is a clear, recognizable postmortem change that helps confirm that death has already taken place.