I Smelt Death Today

And it was vile.

I will not bore you with a blow-by-blow account of my entire days events however something new cropped up today. I used a trocar. A trocar is a hollow, sharp pointed instrument designed to puncture a body cavity for fluid aspiration. It is about 60cm long and is part of the embalming process. A hose is attached to the end and the fluids are drained away. After you perforate the body at a point near the belly button you shove this evil looking implement into various parts of the body and drain whatever you can find. In the first body I did today, the person was obviously a heavy smoker because the black tar like substance that drained from his lungs was nothing short of putrid. The body had started to 'go off' even before the person was transferred to the mortuary and there is nothing that can disguise the smell of death. Even with the extractor fans running and the wearing of face masks, the smell is unascapable. It was unlike anything that I had ever smelt before in my life. I spent about twenty minutes extracting fluids of different colours from this person's chest. Once done I proceeded to fill the body cavity with a type of embalming fluid with the trocar. I repeated this procedure all over again on a second body. This time the person had no smell.

Trocar

I also went on my own today using the transfer wagon to pick up death certificates later on in the day. I appreciate the trust that my employer has in me to be allowed to use the company cars. The rest of the day was spent preparing coffins.