difference in blood test results an hour after death?

Does anyone know,
If you were to take a blood test from a young person after they were dead (cpr still ongoing), would the blood tests be different than if they were taken before the death of that person?

What I need to know is this:
If the results showed congestive heart failure or kidney failure, or a blood sugar of 20... and the blood was drawn after the person was dead (time of death not called yet and cpr still going for a good hour) -- would the results be something we could assume to be correct or would the number be off because of the body shutting down?

And how far out of wack would the results be if they would show different?

(If anyone can help with this - I have the results here and can give you exact numbers and tests run etc.)

My baby brother died at the age of 22. The ME refused to do a autopsy to find out the cause of death, and although I tricked the late night blood lab at the hospital into faxing me his results... everyone proclaims that these tests are non existant and never happened.

Forgive me for bumping this up. If no one knows the answer, does anyone know of a site or forum that might?
It's been almost a year now and when people ask what happened, we still have to "I don't know". It's really working on my mothers health.
Thanks guys,
Angela

I would guess that the blood test would be the same regardless of whether the person was dead or alive, as the constituents of the blood would be the same. Even without an autopsy, a cause of death has to be listed on the death certificate, even if you do not agree with that finding.

This page argues that post mortem blood tests can be inaccurate:

crime.about.com...

These Google searches might help:

www.google.com...

www.google.com...

According to this site, HBO is looking for unsolved crimes and you can submit questions to Dr. Michael Baden, the famous forensic pathologist.

www.hbo.com...

[edit on 05/6/2 by GradyPhilpott]

Thank you VERY much - I'll run dive into those links now :-)

Hey there I know you posted this a while ago, and may have resolved it, but I thought I would throw in my 2 cents. I'm a PA and have worked in pathology for about 6 years, 4 at am ME's office. So, if these tests were drawn before death was called (AKA "perimortem") the likelihood is that there probably would not be a big difference. This depends on how long after cardiac arrest. The main factor skewing blood assays in the post mortem framework is hemolysis that is break down of red blood cells and dissolution of them by enzymatic means.
I am sorry for your loss. If the ME refused to do an autopsy on a 22 year old there must have been compelling medically documented information about his disease to such an extent they felt an autopsy wasn't warranted. With someone so young especially this had to have been the case.

I'm glad you responded. I look to see if anything new has been added to this thread often. It hasn't been resolved yet.
The jist:
He already had blood pooling in the small of his back and was turning purpleish from the nipples up when the fire department started CPR. CPR had gone on for probably 20 minutes before the blood was drawn.

The M.E. knew nothing at all about his medical background before having him sent for cremation... that's the problem, and that's also why they didn't do an autopsy. They just assued it would be an OD because of his age and physicaly he was in excellent condition. (He had a muscle disease that made him look like a body builder. They assumed he'd have steriods in him...he did not.) I do have the blood tests that were taken, and by looking at those results I could come up with at least 3 different causes of death. But I did have to know if the fact that the blood wasn't drawn before he went down makes a difference in the diagnosis one would draw from it. (does this make sence?)

I do have them still... I'd be WAY more than happy to fax a copy to anyone that might be able to help.


My e-mail is
guitarsandpics @ hotmail.com

I'm an EMT, not a doctor, but I may be able to show them to someone who works in the lab at our local hospital.

That would be great.
I just moved 1/2 my office into a storage unit - I'll have to go get them and make copies to leave here and faxe or send to you.

(I may be off line (again) for a few weeks)