It was a nice afternoon. The technicians had finished up a great week and the day's work was almost complete. The weather was perfect and we were all looking forward to the weekend. Then the call came in for the kind of cleanup job we wish we never had to get; the very worst kind of job a disaster restoration company has to do - trauma cleanup at a death scene.
This particular job was at a home where a person had passed away and gone undiscovered for several weeks. I know it's hard to imagine someone being that isolated in this age of cell phones and social media, but it still happens sometimes, unfortunately. The authorities had already removed most of what remained of the former occupant by the time we got the call.
Our technicians loaded up and headed out to the scene, prepared to handle the situation as discreetly as possible. The deceased lived in a rented home, so discretion was an extremely high priority since the home would have to be leased again after it had been completely restored and deemed fit for habitation. Since ServiceMaster by Cornerstone does everything from carpet care to flood and fire cleanup, nobody in the neighborhood had to know why our team was there. For all they knew, our techs were there to simply clean carpet - a common procedure for rental properties getting ready for a new tenant. Still, our guys had to be very careful to keep things as low-key as possible.
To further complicate matters, our team arrived on the scene to discover that a pet had been trapped in the home with the deceased the entire time. Animal Control eventually came for it, but we wondered what they would do with a pet that was likely exposed to that kind of biohazard. We all speculated that adoption would surely have to be out of the question. We later found out that we were correct in that assumption.
For all the obvious reasons I'll spare you the most intimate details describing a scene like that, but I will tell you that even after a body is removed by the authorities, there remains a significant amount of biological matter to remove, simply due to the decomposition process. Our technicians have to dispose of all removable materials that come into contact with the biological matter.
There's also the issue of odor, which most people probably don't realize is a more complicated problem than you'd think. Spraying some disinfectant just won't cut it. After weeks of decomposition, everything in the area is usually permeated with the odor. That includes furniture, walls, flooring, and sometimes even insulation in the walls. One of our technicians described to me how he became severely nauseated when he removed his mask and respirator as he exited the home. He only caught a faint wiff of the odor, but it was enough to cause a significant physical reaction. The good news is that methods, machines and products have been developed that deal effectively with even the worst odors, so even the air is restored in our clean up process.
Fortunately for us (but sadly, not for the deceased), there were no grieving family members or close friends at this scene. That's often not the case, and that factor can add a lot of emotional stress for the technicians handling the job. It doesn't matter how tough you think you are; it's heartbreaking to see people in the depths of grief for their loved one. That does, however, serve as a lasting reminder that this is a people business, and that the deceased was a human being who was loved by someone. You can sometimes look around the scene and see the person's belongings just as he or she left them. You see things like their books, photos and clothing, and you get a sense of who they were and what they liked. It's a very personal thing.
Some of our technicians have seen it all: Natural death scenes; suicide scenes; violent murder scenes; accident scenes - you name it. Fortunately, trauma jobs aren't a weekly occurrence for us. Still, I'm sure our team would rather live in a world where stuff like that never happens. The best they can do is make the scene look (and smell) like it never did happen.
Most of the information in the paragraphs above is second hand to me, thankfully. It comes from the very detailed (sometimes too detailed) descriptions given to me by our technicians upon my request for information - and even sometimes when I didn't ask. Almost all of them are used to it at this point in their careers; at least as used to it as you could expect someone to be. What I described to you is really all you want to know about what it's like to be involved in a trauma cleanup. Trust me, it is.
So, moving on......
It's sometimes asked why trauma cleanup is so costly. While we always strive for fair market pricing on all our services, we realize trauma cleanup isn't cheap. Aside from the fact that most people would say you couldn't pay them enough to do it themselves; part of the reason for the cost is that the process involves complying with several local, state and federal regulations. Biohazard cleanup requires suiting up in protective, disposable garments and gloves, as well as wearing masks with respirators. All of that has to be done to protect the technicians from possibly harmful bacterial and viral hazards. Even if our company didn't require that level of protection (and we do), OSHA, the Occupational Safety Hazard Administration, requires it.
The disposal of all biologically contaminated materials also adds to the cost. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has guidelines that require special disposal techniques that have to be done by qualified, licensed contractors. That means we have to contract with a biohazard disposal service who can destroy the materials properly and in compliance with state regulations. That can be costly since biohazard disposal is a very specialized skill and a highly regulated industry.
That concludes our walk on the dark side. Now go outside and let the sun shine on your face for a few minutes, breathe in the fresh air, and think happy thoughts.
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