Do people really soil themselves when they die?

[Nuggetzor]

I saw it on South Park first, and now throughout the ASOIAF series, does it really happen?

[Fragile Bird]

Yes. The body lets go...

Eta: I was going to add that it doesn't happen every time, but I see gammaerys has added a fuller answer. Your body relaxes, and there may or may not be a release. Howver, in the GoT series there are many other situations, typically involving fear, when characters have lost control of their bowels or kidneys. That happens as well, but it doesn't have to be due to fear. You can pee when you laugh, or sneeze, involuntarily.

Age and the condition of the person's body will have a lot to do with it. Friends who are nurses have seen it, but not usually in the manner used in the books, quantity wise.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

From Coroner Stories, or My New Nominee for Most Simultaneously Appalling and Riveting Place on the Internets:

Quote:

“Spontaneous Defecation”

Q: Is it true that a person spontaneously urinates or defecates when they die?

A: The short answer is no. The longer answer is that it does happen but not in every death. On average, only about one person in ten has urinated or defecated prior to death. Urination can occur simply because there is enough time for the body to relax enough to urinate before it shuts down. This elimination isn’t necessarily indicative of a full bladder. Someone who has drank heavily and has been passed out for several hours prior to death may in fact have several hundred cubic centimeters of urine built up in their bladder (this amount is often documented at autopsy).

Defecation may not occur until after the death has occurred—although the process of elimination isn’t a voluntary movement on the part of the deceased. Moving a body around while examining it or attempting to remove it from a scene can cause fecal matter to exude from the individual. In this respect, the human body acts similarly to a tube of toothpaste as the bowels are compressed.

As a side note, gas that has built up in the bowels is also eliminated as the body is moved or examined. This elimination typically occurs without an audible sound, but I have heard some with this expected accompaniment.

[Sylva Santagar]

It is known.

[The Broke Howard Hughes]

Evacuation.

[Sarah Lannister]

I hope I crap gold when I pass. :leaving:

[Cubarey]

"It's long been known than convicts -- especially women -- urinate and defecate during execution. In the USA, they are diapered; in the UK, before capital punishment was eliminated in 1965, condemned women were compelled to don heavy canvass slacks at time of execution. The so-called "long drop" with hanging (employed by more civilized jurisprudence in recent times) has the force to kill instantly, but also to caused rectal and vaginal prolapse -- the tearing out of internal organs and discharge through lower orifices. The "short drop" was another story. Known to slowly strangle the victim rather than cause instant death, the short drop is the favorite for public executions in the Middle East, and was the mode of execution in Nazi Europe when and where an "example" had to be made. In the former USSR, the short drop was the fate of countless thousands during WWII; and for a very definite reason it was inordinately applied to women and girls in their teens and twenties. - See more at: http://www.poopreport.com/Intellectual/Content/Hanging/hanging.html#sthash.bKjALsUi.dpuf" http://www.poopreport.com/Intellectual/Content/Hanging/hanging.html

[Heidrun]

There have been 2 human and 2 dog deaths that I have witnessed and in none of those cases was there any evacuation. I process my own chickens for meat and sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Usually after the first few, they sense something is going on and probably poop out of fear beforehand.

Although, as mentioned before, it is written a lot in books. Gary Jennings (Aztec) is notorious for writing about evacuation after death, to the point that when I actually witnessed a human death I was surprised that it didn't happen.

[WeddinGuest]

I think this really is a case of GRRM assuming "the grosser it is, the more realistic it must be, because real life is gross". It's not always the best assumption, I realize he's reacting to the sanitized fantasy battles in other works but "grimdark" stories aren't necessarily more realistic. I do know Army nurses/medics, and apparently "involuntary evacuation" is common on the battlefield in general, not just when soldiers actually die violent deaths. The hanging example is another example of a violent death. Of course, most deaths on ASOAIF have been violent, but for example, I don't recall any mention of this happening to Hoster Tully, who died a natural death, likely from cancer.

[beautifulsouth0]

OK, I'm a nurse (and I've started like 10 posts that way) and did ER/trauma, and the answer "sometimes" is correct, because the sphincter muscles relax, and both rectal and urinary. BUT because there is no peristalsis (intestines moving in a rolling fashion, think wind blowing tall grass) after death, then the bowel movements that occur would have to had been very near the rectum or liquid in nature to get pushed out/seep because of the gas levels moving them. (gas can't move solids THAT much)

I think all these people in the books shit themselves out of fear. They're dying in battle half of the time. They've donned armor. It's a fight or flight response that literally "lightens your load." Yes, GRRM is using it to be gross, I think.

Here's one thing that pisses me off that I am pretty sure doesn't happen: when people get stabbed in the stomach and blood comes out of their mouth immediately. I've seen trauma, gunshots and knife wounds to the abdomen, and only those people whose mechanism of injury included massive force have blood come out of their mouth at all. I'm not sure about immediately- obviously I wasn't there. But penetrating abdominal wounds have to be in exactly the right spot for a "bleeder" to squirt up the esophagus. When people get stabbed or shot in nearly every movie or tv show I've seen, the thing that happens EVERY TIME right after their face registers the shock is open their mouth and spit out blood. And I'm always yelling "Come on! That doesn't happen!" If we're doing CPR, OK, sure. But spontaneous, immediate gush of blood out of the mouth? Pretty sure that doesn't happen.