Down Among the Dead Men_ A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician - Michelle Williams [45]
Ed never did discover exactly why the Reverend Samuelson met his end. He had long discussions with the intensive therapy consultants, the microbiologists and the Coroner, but all he could do was to exclude things. He knew that the Reverend hadn’t suffered major trauma, and there was no toxicological reason for him to die so, he told us, it was going to be a ‘best guess’ as to what actually killed the poor man.
‘Which is?’ asked Clive.
Ed shrugged. ‘It has to be the sewage. He was in the water a long time and there was a lot of sewage being washed out. He went under several times by all accounts, so he would have taken in a fair dose of some pretty nasty bugs.’
At which I felt slightly sick. ‘But the microbiology tests were negative,’ Clive pointed out.
Ed explained, ‘They wouldn’t pick up viruses, only bacteria and fungi and things.’
Graham nodded knowingly at Clive. ‘Remember that bugger who fell in the slurry pit? He didn’t do too well, neither.’
Clive winced but said nothing.
TWENTY-FOUR
Gloucestershire plays host to a lot of fairs and circuses and this, in turn, brings a lot of travelling families. Graham and I were busily getting all the stock levels of cleaning chemicals up one Friday afternoon in August ready for any unexpected disasters at the weekend, when the A&E porters arrived with Mr Jack Diggins of no fixed abode. As I opened the door, while smiling and laughing at a joke Graham had just told me, and assuming that it would be one of the many undertakers that come to collect bodies, I was totally taken aback by what I saw. Standing in front of me, outside the double doors to the ‘deceased’ entrance – the one that is hidden from the public – were two porters, the covered mortuary trolley in which the deceased are moved from the wards or casualty to the mortuary and, surrounding this, a large crowd of people.
These turned out to be Mr Diggins’ family, and they wanted to make sure their Jack was transferred from A&E to us in the proper manner. What they were also hoping for was to stay with him in the mortuary. I was embarrassed that I had opened the door laughing, as it must have given the impression that I didn’t care about my job. I excused myself and asked the party to give me two minutes, and literally ran to the office to get Clive. Clive was deep in conversation on the telephone and I began to panic. I couldn’t get his attention and realized from what I heard that he was going to be a long time on the phone. Graham was going to have to sort this. ‘You need to go to the front door,’ I told Graham.
‘Can’t you see to it?’ he replied.
‘No,’ was my simple answer.
Graham smiled as he walked past me, gently shaking his head. ‘Nothing is that difficult, Michelle,’ he said while heading to the front doors. I wondered how he was going to react to what awaited him, so followed. On opening the doors, Graham greeted the porters in his usual fashion. ‘All right, lads.’ This was not a question, but a statement. He turned to the people surrounding the trolley and asked politely if he could help them. They told him, in none too nice a manner, that they wanted to come in with their next of kin. Graham replied, in a calm but firm way, that there was basically not a chance of them entering the mortuary and that they would have to make an appointment over the phone for a viewing in the chapel of rest. It was clear that he was not going to take anything else for an answer on this matter, and I was jealous of his confidence. The family then asked if they could uncover Mr Diggins to say goodbye. At this point, Graham’s face turned a slight shade of red and I could see he was beginning to lose his temper. ‘I am afraid you have to consider the other patients in the hospital,’ he told them. ‘I cannot allow you, under any circumstances, to uncover a deceased patient while out in the open.’ Thank God the family accepted this, but I could see