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Asked by 10msvon to Craig, Anna, Richard on 23 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by 10msphi.
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Craig McKenzie answered on 21 Jun 2011:
Hi 10msvon,
I don’t find it very nice but I don’t find it scary. I always remember the first time i saw a dead body at work though and i remember feeling unnerved and a bit strange – i didn’t like to look at the person but then had to handle the body at one point. i generally remember most of the bodies i have seen but do not get upset by it – it was just part of my job sometimes. It makes it easier that I believe that what made that person who they were has left and the body that is left behind is just a shell. Sometimes it can be bad when something horrible has happened to the person and the body might be damaged or in a bad condition but it is our job to find out what has happened to them because they cannot tell us or their family themselves.Investigating fire scenes where people have died can be quite upsetting as it is not nice to see people who have been burnt in a fire. sometimes they just look like they are sleeping and sometimes they are very badly burnt in the fire. I almost find it harder if they look like they are sleeping and sometimes they can remind you of people who we might have known.If we were scared or upset then we wouldn’t be able to do our jobs properly as we have to think about things very carefully and scientifically. Sometimes the smell can be bad but we always show the greatest respect to the bodiy of someone who has died or has been found at the crime scene, in some cases the body might have been removed before i arrive.
As scientists have to use all our scientific skills to know what evidence we need to try to recover and to figure out what happened to them and make sure we collect it and analyse it so we don’t damage, contaminate or change it in any way from how we first found it.
i think it is a very rewarding job. Seeing that kind of thing always makes me very grateful for the life i have and the people i have around me and reminds me that i should try and enjoy it all as much as i can while I can.
Thanks for a really good question, i hope i’ve explained well enough for you – if not feel free to ask as many questions as you like.
Craig
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Anna Williams answered on 21 Jun 2011:
Hello 10mvson,
Thanks for the question!
If I am totally honest, then yes, it is a bit scary. I have to steel myself up a bit before I walk into the lab or the morgue, if I know I am about to see a fresh or decomposing body. I don’t have any trouble dealing with and touching skeletons – they look very different to real people anyway, so I don’t feel grossed out at all. But dealing with fresh (newly dead) and decomposing bodies can be tough. If they are fresh, then they can just look like they are sleeping, except that they might have a big gash in their head or a bullet wound or something like that. It can be horrible if it is a child or young person, or, as I had quite recently, it looked a bit like my mother – that was horible. I just had to try and put it out of my head and get on with it.
Examining and touching a decomposing body is worse, I think, because of the smell. If the body has been dead a while, and has been somewhere warm, it can be extremely smelly, and a bit gloopy and runny, and there can also be lots of maggots crawling all over it. I have to make sure I am wearing long gloves and my lab coat is tucked into my gloves, to stop the maggots jumping up my sleeve! On the tv, you see people putting things like Vicks under their noses to prevent them smelling the smell, but that doesn’t work, and actually, I find, makes it worse. I just have to be in a well-ventilated place (which isn’t always easy) and take steps back every once in a while to get some fresh air. Some of the gases given off by rotting bodies are very bad for you – for example, two gases called cadaverine and putrescine. These are a bit like carbon monoxide – they can bind to haemoglobin in your red blood cells (the part that picks up oxygen) better than oxygen, so you can feel a bit light headed and dizzy. For health and safety reasons, you need to have breaks quite often.When I first started working in this science, and saw my first few dead bodies, I did find it a bit traumatic, but I was determined to be strong about it, and I knew I that if I wanted to stay in forensic science, I had to get used to it. I did have a few nightmares at the beginning, but now, I find it easier to detach myself and ‘switch off’ to it, and just get on with answering the questions I am there to answer.
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Richard Case answered on 23 Jun 2011:
The worst parts of dead people is:
Before you get there, your body always prepares you for the worst and the adrenalin usually starts pumping, and in my experience the actual reality of the dead body is never as bad as you expect…. but this is a very psychological thing, and some people will cope with it better or worse than others…. some people will put on bravado and try to act tough… others will use humour to disguise any emotions. But whatever your reaction, it is important that you have a support network you can turn to if needed.
I have never experienced any nightmares or negative issues relating to what I’ve witnessed, but I am also aware that these things might manifest in future years… for instance, my perception on death changed significantly when I had kids of my own.
The other thing is the smell… the vast majority of dead bodies that I have had to attend have been in an advanced stage of decomposition and in a mortuary environment. There is nothing worse than the stench that hits you when the body bag is first opened. I usually warn the mortuary attendants that I have quite a sensitive gag reflex and I am likely to gag for about 10 seconds… I have never been physically sick and acclimatise quite quickly to the smell.
I always have to remember that I am there for the victim and have a very important job to do, to either help identify the person and make things easier for their family, or obtain fingerprints to help solve a crime. This helps!
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