Down Among the Dead Men_ A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician - Michelle Williams [24]
I asked Clive about this, and he decided that there was no time like the present, so he took me through to the body store and got a random body out of the fridge. It just so happened that this person had died with their eyes and mouth open. Clive went on to complain about this becoming more regular when a person died on the ward. There was and is in place the Trust’s ‘Last Offices’ policy that requires the ward to present the body to the mortuary in a suitable manner; this involves packing of cavities and, where possible, closing eyes. If this is done just after death then the eyelids will stay down but, if not, it becomes a problem. At least in this case, the fact that they hadn’t followed the policy had done me a favour, as Clive would be able to show me exactly what to do, but I could tell he was upset that the body had been sent to the mortuary from the ward in this way. He had high standards when it came to how the deceased should be treated. He didn’t seem to deal with the living too kindly, but at least he had great pride in his job.
He started to show me how to make things better. He got a pillow and placed it under the deceased’s head; he then got a head block and placed that under the pillow; raising the head this way caused the mouth to close. Next he got a tiny piece of cotton wool and some forceps; he placed the smallest amount of cotton wool on the eye and lifted the eyelid over it. This simple act caused the eye to stay closed. Clive preferred this to gluing the eyelids together with superglue – which some morticians do – and, I have to admit, I was immediately sold, so that it is a practice I still follow today. He told me about how his predecessor preferred to put an invisible stitch in the mouth, but that he considered such practices very invasive and preferred to see if he could solve the problems through other means. By the time Clive had finished, the deceased looked peaceful, as if he were sound asleep. To help with this, Clive had worked out the worry lines in the forehead by gently massaging them and straightened the mouth to a relaxed look. He made everything look so easy, and was rightly proud of his achievement.
It took Clive all of ten minutes to do this but what worried me was that, at least to begin with, I knew it would take me longer.
The switchboard was given my number and, as of the following week, I would be officially on call for the hospital. This went for the Coroner too, as I would also be working for him in a roundabout way; in turn, Clive added, that meant the possibility of having to do forensic post-mortems.
I had heard Clive and Graham mention forensic post-mortems before but didn’t really understand what they were. When I asked, Clive said, matter of factly, ‘You know, suspicious deaths, murders, that kind of thing.’
‘Murders?’ I began to panic.
Clive smiled. ‘Every now and again, Michelle, every now and again.’
FOURTEEN
The next week flew by, being only four days, but without a lot of PM work – although we had had several deaths through the doors, most of them had been expected and did not require autopsy – so we spent much of the week cleaning and I got to know Graham a lot better. Like Clive, he had also worked for the hospital for a long time; first as a porter, and then he’d stumbled across the job in the mortuary, initially helping Clive out when he needed it, then ending up as a permanent fixture. He also loved his job, but was not interested in furthering his career. Now, what mortuary technicians do is a recognized profession and you are able to sit exams which, once you have passed them, will allow you to climb the ladder in the technician world. It will also allow you to work with national disasters if you choose; Clive had taken these exams, but all Graham wanted out of life was to do his job to the best