Saw my first dead body today.............

One time, I was working on an overhaul for a engine for the generators at the bottom of a hospital here. We were telling one of the mechanics that there was dead bodies down there, and he thought we were just joking around.. Got there and yep, sure enough bodies on stretchers everywhere, and he freaked out and went home! Then one of the mechanics passed out because it was so damn hot down there... Seriously, I was on the verge of passing out, it was extremely hot.. but that wasnt what made me sick, it was the smell.. uuughhh...

The sad thing is, I'm a cop and I see dead people more than I want. I had to break into a 70 some year old mans house one time. Middle of summer, A/C NOT ON for some reason and the house was like Fort Knox. As soon as I broke the seal on a window I went through WHEW Smelly. Dude had been dead for over a month in the house. I did'nt spew but I almost did. He had done got gooey and well nasty... People in the med field usually don't see things the way cops do. We see it first when it's nice a ripe. It sucks... Oh well it's a fun job though

***Shhhh, theres a nark in the room***

** jumps behind the couch and eats what evers left of the m&m's and turkey samiches!!**

I saw a guy run out of a tavern right next to the road. He ran accross the road and got hit he never looked for cars just ran. All I saw after he was hit allot of blood and when I got to see him his ribbs where sticking out. Im pretty sure he didn't survive. I sure felt sorry for the guy though

Its stuff like that that keep me out of emergency service. I'd like to be a volunteer fireman, but they are first response here, and I couldnt take some of the things they have to see. I can watch surgery on TV all day long.I find it intersting. Infact,trauma-life in the ER was one of my favorite shows. But there is no way I could see that stuff in real life. Dead bodies dont freak me out really, but mutilation is something I cant handle. I can take it to a degree, if I know its fake, as in a horror movie, but even then, some stuff is way beyond my limit. I cant even watch those home movies on you-tube like sites where bones get broken.

I happened apon a bad car wreck durring the summer of '04....a lady pulled out in front of a Dodge Ram going 70mph and she got T boned dead on...and it killed her instantly. I was first on the scene and had to check her pulse and all that...she was my second tragic death encounter, but the first one that up close. It was actually some what easy for me to handle because i have a good ability to focus on what needs to be done in that kind of situation, but once the authorities where there and everything, i was very sad for her. I have a very close understanding that death is just a part of life, but that only helps to a certain degree. In a way i was glad for her because i know she didn't suffer and probably had no idea that any of it even happened, but then i was sorry for her family who had to deal with the loss.

I've seen my fair share, but children seem to be the worse for me to see.

jinx369 said:

I've seen my fair share, but children seem to be the worse for me to see.

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Dont know how you can deal with that. You can kind of reconcile with the death of an adult,especially a senior citizen, but children are a whole different ball game. Seeing a child like that would tear me apart.

s&k stangs said:

Dont know how you can deal with that. You can kind of reconcile with the death of an adult,especially a senior citizen, but children are a whole different ball game. Seeing a child like that would tear me apart.

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Yeah....the lady in the wreck i spoke of was at least 50....the first time for me was a girl who went to my school growing up...i was in jr high and she was in high school....lost control of her car and hit a pole in my front yard and died at the scene....that was rough.

Before I stumbled upon doing the phlebotomy (blood-draw) thing that I do now, I was all geared up to get into mortuary science. Main reason I decided against it wasn't the whole dead body issue, but rather the employment one: how often do you see ads for "mortician wanted" in the paper? It's really hard to get started in the field because it's all about who you know and whose arse you kiss to get in there.

The gore, itself, doesn't bother me, really ... kinda fascinates me in a morbid sort of way. I've seen a few dead or soon-to-be-dead bodies over the years. An uncle at a wake when I was too young to really remember; one old lady that got run over by another old lady in front of Wal-Mart (heard a thump, turned and saw a crumpled up ol' lady on the ground, she died within minutes); drove by a gory accident scene or two where they were peeling people out from within twisted wrecks.

I come across cadavers at least once a week, now. The laboratory of the hospital I work at is right next door to the morgue, so every once in awhile when you're coming off the elevator and heading that way, you pass by a dude carting along a body on a gurney with a sheet over it - nothing graphic, usually, because it's usually just old people that've kicked the bucket due to ... well, just being old. Really, seeing trauma patients come in through the ER doors or being unloaded from a medical chopper is more disturbing to me than a dead body - those people are still alive and suffering, and maybe SOON to be dead.

As stated, the trick to dealing with the sight of death is that, aside from witnessing the actual moment of a person's passing from life, you have to look at a dead body as an IT, a THING, or an inanimate object - the spirit/soul/whatever that was within that body before has already passed on, so all you're looking at is a pile of meat n' bones. (Sad to think that's all we really are in the end, but that's about the sum of it.)

The actual moment of a person dying, on the other hand, is kind of a heavy deal - seeing a person go from being, well, a PERSON in one moment ... and then only being so much meat n' bones. Gory death or not, the change from someONE into someTHING is just bizarre, which is probably why death is probably one of the all-time most fascinating subjects throughout human history.

my group's cadaver in Gross Anatomy Lab was dead for 2 or 3 years. After the end of the school year, the med school held a memorial service for the families of the people who donated their body to science. Afterward, there was a grave-side memorial at the local cemetary. I found out at that time that the gentleman who helped me get my PT degree was a veteran. You never know their names or whatever, but I could tell by the family members present.

If anyone is interested in cadavers and how they are used in many, many fields, read a book called: "Stiff". You find out all kinds of uses for cadavers from forensics, to plastic surgery, to automotive engineers who use them to test restraint systems.

Good stuff.

Also, check out Bodyworld if it ever comes to your city.

I remeber the first dead body that i saw and it wasn't in a classroom but in the middle of a road.

We were driving to the airport early one morning and the stretch of highway had no lights on it. Out of nowhere we start to see this debri all over the road. We start to slow down and all of a sudden theres a tipped over black van. We swerved out of the way and pulled over to see if anyone was hurt. And thats when i saw my first dead body. One was pinned under the van with just their legs sticking out and the other was on the road about 10 feet away from the van. Neither one looked like they were wearing a seat belt.

It was a horribly disturbing sight thats for sure. I'm not going to go into detail as to what i exactly saw but it took a long time to get that image out of my head. I had a chill run down my spine for awhile everytime i got in my car for probably close to a month. But yeah when you see your first dead body its something you'll never forget.

I know i never will.

More to see the damage that would become during a crash. Oh, and the bodies are a one-use thing--they don't keep dragging the shreds into and out of the testing site.

Was driving down the road with my wife about 4 years ago when we saw a lady bent over an old man lying on the sidewalk... Heart Attack

He was turning blue and she saw him fall

My wife was in nursing school so we pulled over and she started CPR immediately...

To no avail. He died lying there on the sidewalk and my wife was sad she lost him. She tried though.

only dead body i seen was when me and my mom found my grandma dead in the bedroom she was stayin in at our house it is definetly weird

Man , dead bodies , seen my fair share after being a Paramedic for 6 years . Its just another day at the office for me . I've seen every demographic of dead people you can imagine . In every condition from unrecognizable to peacefully intact . I dont feel much emotion like I used to , I always say a little prayer though , something to the effect that I hope they rest in peace . But there is an upside , saving a life is an undescribable experience , so I get the good with the bad . It has taught me one very very important thing.....life is precious , enjoy every minute of it , dont stay mad and never take it for granted...it is so short and can be taken away from you at any moment . Live life to the fullest!!