
No, not everyone pees and poops at the onset of death.
Keep in mind, the majority of deaths I am called to are traumatic and unexpected. I do see many decedents in hospitals when I am recovering corneas for eye donation, but at death the nurses clean them up before putting them in a body bag and taking them to the morgue.
But in the cases where I go to death scenes, I would estimate people urinate on themselves about a third of the time. I think this has to do with how full the bladder was at the time. If I died leaving a movie theater I would leave a huge puddle! When the muscles relax, gravity wins.
I see fecal incontinence fairly frequently, but this is usually people who are frail or have been ill. Often we see a trail from the bed to the toilet, and sometimes you can tell they have been trying to clean up. Typically this will be someone without health insurance, who keeps putting off going to the doctor. This falls under the jurisdiction of the Medical Examiner / Coroner as an ‘Unattended death’. Meaning they had no primary care physician who was treating them.
But rarely on traumatic deaths will someone poop themselves. The exception being some hangings.
At autopsy or examination, fecal or urinary incontinence will be notated in the chart, but other than that, no one gives it a second thought. Really the old ‘wear clean underwear in case you are in an accident’ mom’s used to warn kids about is bunk. I mean, if we had the choice between examining someone with clean under-dooters and someone with soiled ones that would be great. But we do not get to choose our ‘clients’ and they rarely (except in some suicides) prepare for us.
If someone you knew came through our office, and you asked if they had clean chonies, we wouldn’t tell you, and probably would not remember. If you are the NOK (next-of-kin) you can order the autopsy report and it would be noted there. But we don’t gossip about the circumstances of our cases. That would be disrespectful, and a fast track to getting fired.
Original question:
When someone dies, is it true everyone pees & poops at the onset of death?