Eli5: How do morticians tell if someone died from a blood clot?

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My neighbour died when several blood clots travelled to his heart and caused a massive heart attack.

How can mortitions tell this during an autopsy?

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3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

morticians don’t do autopsies.

coroners confirm or rule it out by opening the pulmonary arteries

Anonymous 0 Comments

They (a coroner) tell by performing an autopsy. During the autopsy they’ll find a blood clot. If it’s in a place that can kill you then that’s evidence that the person died from the blood clot.

Like, if they find a blood clot in your big toe it’s not likely to have killed you.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Coroner and pathologist do autopsy. They are assisted by a pathology technician that usually do the dissection . As for the clot, a clot in your arteries that is formed ante mortem (before your death) and can very well be the cause of your death is sticking to the arteries wall. A clot that is form post mortem, after the death will be easily movable. During an autopsy, we carefully check the coronary and pulmonary arteries that are the most common place that a clot will form causing death.

I’m a pathology tech.