Do you ever get used to the dead people?

[ErinCooley]

dead creeps me out... I don't like being around a dead body. Period.

I DO my job appropriately and compassionately as needed, however I really prefer a breathing patient!! I dont think I will ever get used to dead.

I had my first "floater" a few weeks ago. He had been in the lake about 3 days. I didnt barf, I will never eat fish again though.

 

[PapaBear434]

dead creeps me out... I don't like being around a dead body. Period.

I DO my job appropriately and compassionately as needed, however I really prefer a breathing patient!! I dont think I will ever get used to dead.

I had my first "floater" a few weeks ago. He had been in the lake about 3 days. I didnt barf, I will never eat fish again though.

I'll agree with you on that. I don't LIKE to hang around dead bodies. It is creepy, and I still get chills driving by a particularly large cometary. But I am not disturbed or freaked out by it.

As far as the floater goes: When I was going though the Police Academy (no, Steve Guttenburg was not there) we had to go to an autopsy. The idea, I was told, was to desensitize us to the sight and smell of a dead body. In actuality, I think it was to try and gross us out to the point of making us puke and/or quit. The body we got was a man in his forties (not that you could tell anymore) that had been in the bay for almost a week.

I managed to hold down my gorge. And since then, I will still avoid bad smells but I have yet to feel sick by them. And it's been almost eight years since that.

Floaters are just terrible. Eh...

 

[41 Duck]

Floaters are bad, yes. So are the liquefied ones. While they're not something I particularly look forward to, if I had a reliable source tell me the future, saying that this Friday I'd have a goopy one, I'd still go in.

You get used to it--or, probably more accurately, you develop coping mechanisms that make it a tolerable part of the job.

Dead's easy. Living's the tough part.



Later!

--Coop

 

[LAnel1]

yes. you get used to it. There will always be times when seeing a dead body might bother you, especially if it reminds you of a past experience or even a person you know. You haven't had any mental breakdowns or flipped out at the sight of a dead person though, right? then you're doing just fine. =) You'll be saying "oohpa! and another bites the dust" in your head in no time... no worries.

 

[Airwaygoddess]

my thoughts.....

Something that my father used to say, "Dying is harder on the living then on the dead." It is interesting how we all come to what is our couping mechanism. Much of it is what we have learned as a child and our life events growing up. All I know is that that soul is no longer there, any pain and suffering is now gone.

When I worked in the hospital, and we had a patient die, part of our job was doing post mortum care, this meant pulling tubes, and getting the expired patient cleaned up the body for family to view and say their good byes. Now mind you, I would still talk to this body while providing care and granted I know they were dead, but for me this was the way that I would coupe with this, especially when I had cared for this patient for a period of time. On one occasion, we had a patient expire in the ED, so I was in the room getting this expired patient cleaned up because family was in route, (code blue) I was talking to the body saying I needed to get them all nice and clean for their family. The funny part of all of that was that the family had gotten there before I was finished and was listening to me talk to their loved one.

The family thanked me for being so kind and respectful to their loved one, it helped them with gaining peace that even though they did not get there in time to say good bye, that someone was was there so their family member was not alone. Funny little things that help us coupe with the big picture that is called life..........-_-

 

[MedicAngel]

Made me remember my first oh :censored::censored::censored::censored: code as a green EMT of 6 months. Was to one of our frequent flyers who had a lot of mental and emotional issues, we go running in, my paramedic calling out the ladies name and we find her in the living room in 3 flannel shirts, two blankets, and she stuffed herself into two sleeping bags then zipped it all up. She had taken a mass dose of all her medication and O.D'd, committing suicide. Course, her body was still warm so we worked her for about 45 minutes, in this time having loaded her up in the rig. While we were bagging her, this green foamy stuff was coming up and it smelled a lot like asparagus, took me about a year and a half to eat the vegetable after that!

Another was a young girl, 18, had just graduated the day before from high school. She apparently was going down a hill at a high rate of speed, talking on her cell phone to, whom we found out later was her dad, with no seatbelt. Something caused her to swerve, she tried to correct it and flipped the explorer she was driving 4 times before it came to rest on its top. We believe, and bystanders back the story up, that on the 3rd revolution of the vehicle, she came out of the window and the vehicle landed on her, slid then flipped one more time. Text book step down of the back, crushed skull, broken femurs, both of them, etc...we helped the coroner roll the body over to take photos and at that point I had to look up and just blank my mind.

Those two are the two really big calls that will stick in my mind. Did it bother me? Hell ya it did but I was also there to do a service to my community and I dealt with it. I keep a journal that I hide rather well and when I have calls that are very bothersome or really leave an impact, I find a quiet place and write them down in pretty graphic detail. It really helps me in that way to let go and find some therapy so to speak.

I also work in the hospital and yes, I have shed tears over a few patients that have really tugged on my heartstrings. It is harder I think when you work with them for several weeks and then when you come back on shift a few days later your told they have passed away or they do go on your shift and you have to do the last bath and bag them up in the body bag, of whatever your hospitals protocol may be. I know my nurse and I almost dropped a woman as I had rolled her over to wash her back before we put the body back under her and her body let out a large pocket of air, so it sounded like she burped, and her body did shudder!! We looked at one another and started to laugh nervously. Other bodies have let out body fluids from the mouth, nose, and sometimes ears, depending on what their condition or diagnosis was.

 

[sabbymedic]

I have been doing this job now for nine years and have been around it for approx. 18 years. Seeing someone dead to me is always a little unnerving because you are in a situation that most people are not. Does it get easier? Well for me I can tell you that it becomes more of a part of your job and life than OMG that person is dead. I usally turn my attention after a VSA to the family members present to make sure they are ok, kind of a way of refocusing my energy. Does it still bother me? Some of them do depending on how they died, but I do believe that you have to find a way of letting go and your support group of friends is a great idea. Keep it up you will find your way of dealing.

 

[cakilcrease]

i think that what you are doing is one of the best things that you could do by talking about it. not only is death a part of our job but it is also a part of everyday life. for me i think that the biggest form of release is to remember that the body is just a container once it is empty then you can get no more from it. the real person lives on in memories of the loved ones. death only ends a life. although life is a sacred thing we must understand that sometimes we a called upon to witness and sometimes comfort those "checking out". eventually, yes you will get used to seeing dead bodies, and you might even become cold a callused like some medics i know. but right now you need to learn as much as you can and never quit talking about it.

 

[cricketfire46]

The very first MVC i worked was the very first call i worked on the vol. fire dept that i am on. it was a close friend of mine that was the pt. i was however, even knowing that this was a close friend, able to carry out my required tasks and help with the extrication of my friend. i have now been in the EMS business for about a year and a half and the whole dead body thing still doesnt bother me. everybody has to go sometime just be glad its not your time yet