Is there such a thing as the "Last Breath" for a person that is already dead?

Question

Someone told me a story that they were told by a friend about attending a funeral where the body sat up in the casket and drew a final breath or "Last Breath" as she calls it, and then just "died" again.. She said that the people there where running up to the casket sreaming and whatever .. I told her it sounded like bullshit, but she insists she is right and it kinda freaked me out!!!! I mean a body that has been dead for a while and embalmed and all can't move.. can it??? I mean i've seen it in movies but that can't be true...

Answer 1

My daddy used to tell a story about this happening in a hearse and scaring the people in there. I don't know if it was true or not. I do know that those people are right who said the muscles etc can contract and air come out..but I don't know if they'd sit all the way up. But..they're not alive if they've been embalmed.

Edit..It's also called the "death rattle"..Here's a link about it:

http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?...

Answer 2

Definately not after being embalmed.

Sometimes people think that they see bodies breathing while in their caskets.

I drew a mental picture in my head,of this particular body,drawing a final breath and seeing people running around screaming....uh! don't think so

Answer 3

If she had to do it at her funeral she must have done it.  Everything is possible except this is going too far after her body was embalmed as you say.

Answer 4

I don't believe that they can sit up but its not uncommon for a cadaver to breathe after it is dead....  It is just bodily gases and things that happen as the organs start to decompose.....

Answer 5

I worked in a funeral home for a year.  If the body is being shown at a funeral, it is almost certainly embalmed.  The law says a body either has to be buried, embalmed, or on ice within 24 hours.  It is very very rare for bodies that aren't embalmed, just refridgerated to be shown at a viewing or funeral, due to the smell factor.  Embalmed bodies are aspirated, which means that a giant needle connected to a hose liquifies and sucks out all the guts in the body cavity.  I worked with hundreds of cadavers in that year and never experienced what you are talking about.

Answer 6

Yes, cadavers have been known to "breathe" out gasses (like methane) as they decay.  I don't think embalmed corpses do though.  I've never heard of one sitting up either.  This sounds more like a case of a story that gets spread to friend to friend, but each time it never changes.  It always goes "I have a friend who said they were at a funeral..." even though the friend actually said it happened to THEIR friend, not them, you know what I'm saying.  All kinds of stupid stories travel that way.  This is probably one of them.

Answer 7

I think your first impression was right on the mark.

Answer 8

I was told that when you have to move a dead body as you pick it up it sometimes forces some air out and it sounds as though the corpse is breathing or sighing.

Apparently it is a favourite trick of old policeman to get the newbie to pick up the head end of the corpse and watch them freak out when they think the body is coming back to life.

Someone else told me that as a child she had heard her dead grandmother f**t as her corpse was being carried out and was very excited to think grandma was alive again.

Answer 9

I suppose air could be trapped in the body and as it "dries out" something could happen. Apparently when a body is cremated, due to the intense heat, it can "sit up" in the furnace.

You can watch the body of your relative being cremated if you wish (as if you would want to)

Answer 10

Cadavers will sometimes rise up due to muscles contracting. And it's not unusual for them to exhale: It's just air/gas that formed in the body as the organs decay.

Answer 11

no I don't think so, check wikipedia and read their article on paranormal.