Autopsy Of A Former Yeerk Host

[Tim Bruening]

If a former human controller (whose Yeerk left him while in a completely healthy state, and didn't leave any part of its body behind) dies, would an autopsy reveal anything suspicious?

[TheWolfEmperor]

There might be some damage to the brain. I never bought the idea that there was no long term damage to the host after having a Yeerk, who has just been swimming around in a pool full of nutrients that can't possibly have any long term benefits to the human body, and can become chemically dependent on instant oatmeal, enter your brain multiple times over the course of an invasion.

[DinosaurNothlit]

I think the bigger problem than damage to the brain, would be damage to the inner ear.  The books state that Yeerks have to move stuff around in there, and then basically eat their way through the skull to get to the brain.  In fact I've always wondered if Controllers end up with hearing loss in one ear.

Of course, most autopsies don't go anywhere near that area, as far as I know.  Heck, do most autopsies even look at the brain?  I suppose it really depends on how the person died.  If a guy dies of a gunshot wound to the chest, I tend to think they aren't going to open up his skull.  Brain cancer, though, and they probably would.  Then again, in that scenario, anything that's wrong with the brain might then be attributed to the cancer instead.  Hmm.  That's an interesting little catch-22.  If they think they have reason to look at the brain in an autopsy, then there was probably already something wrong with the brain in the first place, and any damage or irregularities would be attributed to whatever that was, instead of to a Yeerk.  Same with the inner ear thing.  Convenient.

[TheWolfEmperor]

Heck, do most autopsies even look at the brain?  I suppose it really depends on how the person died.

If the suspected cause of death is a cancerous tumor, perhaps. They're also discovering malignancies in the brain that aren't always detected in the course of a normal medical examination, so if someone were to die of something entirely mysterious, the brain might be one avenue of exploration. This may be a sensitive topic still, but I imagine that they had to go into Robin Williams' brain to determine that he was suffering from the mental illness that resulted in his suicide. It's all conjecture of course, there might have been other chemical imbalances that they found.

Also, I seem to remember that in Visser, Visser One's cohort left bits and pieces of himself attached to the brain of his host after a particularly violent death. It caused long term damage to his brain that made medical authorities think he was mentally ill.