Disaster Training

[jpegghost]

Sorry I'm a day late with my usual posting, I was a psuedo-DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team) yesterday.

DMORT is operated and sent out by FEMA during disasters or other mass death with coroners, autopsy techs, and other funeral representatives. If we have another disaster I could get called out to work mass shooting sites, natural disaster sites, et cetera. ANYWAYS. Our local morgue was stockpiled to the brim yesterday and there was a supremely low staff shortage. They called out to local funeral homes for backup, and lucky me, I have the best immune system / am the youngest in our funeral home so I was sent out.

I saw around ... 200? Bodies? Mostly covid. I worked almost 9 hours yesterday around the clock shipping out bodies, prepping bodies, locating bodies in overrun coolers, et cetera. I feel like a more sensitive person would be shocked and overwhelmed by it -- but it only left me angrier at our governor who really screwed the pooch on this whole 'deadly pandemic' situation. It was EXHAUSTING and when I got home I spent most of the day in bed watching videos debunking DIY hacks.

In better news one of my favorite artist's vinyl came in! I've been a fan of Jeff Rosenstock for a few years, and No Dream was a great album when it dropped a month or two ago. It's so PRETTY.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

That record is gorgeous! It almost makes me wish I had a turntable.

[8hyenas]

Nice plant! (I will never remember the names)

I am deeply interested in all the mortuary stuff. I didn't want there to be no comment and you be like "BAD TOPIC!" but I also have nothing to add, other than I hope you'll stay well. (The new people not the bodies)

[jpegghost]

That's my girl Rita, the yucca cane!

I'm happy you like it! Many things happened yesterday, and I will tell them to just you and whoever reads the comment:

-I've certified that I'm unfazeable by talking to an embalmer about Church's Chicken while he slit the carotid of a dead woman and all this putrid sludge blood came out. And I was still hungry.

-I carted around a putrefying, green, mummified guy. I had to use a lot of febreeze. The smell was in my hair.

-I cracked open a disaster pouch (a bag for jumbled up remains) with a very very sludgy and rotten guy and apparently the face I made was a mildly inconvenienced ":/" while I fished around to find his hand to see if he was wearing a ring we were looking for

-Saw someone who was purple. That's it.

I'm not working there daily. I still have my regular funeral home and my boss doesn't like lending me out. So I won't be AS exposed as many others are, but there's still a risk.

[8hyenas]

Disaster. Pouch.

[jpegghost]

YEP that's what we call it... For soupy or jumbled up remains. Anyone who is in pieces or slush ends up in there.

[8hyenas]

Ziploc.

[jpegghost]

It's pretty much a black colored ziploc. I think I will call them human ziplocs from now on.

[dark_phoenix54]

Holy SHIT!! I wonder what the usual number of deaths is for the area?! We're still doing okay here; case numbers still going up but it's not exponential. Spokane, just right over the border, is having a hell of a time. Have they ever established if you can catch COVID by handling the bodies of the dead? Stay safe!

[jpegghost]

I'm not sure tbh! I'd say much, much less. It was pretty crazy in there, not gonna lie.

There's not a lot of proof, but the Covid bodies I handled were well over a week old (that's how severely backed up things were). I doubt the virus can survive that long and not get eaten by bigger, badder bugs. I'd be worried if it produced endospores, but it doesn't, so I think I'll be fine. IIRC it dies out around 48 hours.

[amejisuto]

Whoa. It sounds like your treat of a new record was well earned. I wish the federal government would step in and set some common guidelines for the pandemic but with the current guy in charge, it's not going to happen.

[jpegghost]

Flush the turd November 3rd!

[amejisuto]

LMAO! That is the best campain saying I've ever heard! That is hilarious! You go!

[alee_grrl]

The mortuary stories are fascinating. And there is nothing wrong with being unfazed by these things. We need people who are unfazed by what everyone else considers gross and deeply disturbing because emergency response, medical care, and mortuary care all require someone who can handle those things without problem.

I have a lot of EMTs and nurses in my family (and at one point I was a first responder for a small volunteer fire department) so our dinner conversations can get a little much for some people. And here I am eating my breakfast while reading this post. lol

I'm appalled at how our government has handled this pandemic. As you say, "flush the turd, November 3rd." And flush all those politicians who supported him and his crazy ass administration.

Glad you were able to treat yourself with a new (absolutely gorgeous) record and find a way to unwind after such an utterly exhausting day. <3

[jpegghost]

I bet your stories are great. I find when the family is in the business, you all end up weird and morbid. The family dinners are probably amazing! To be a fly on the wall...

Texas is turning purple / blue RAPIDLY. A lot of us can't afford anything and LARGE majority of Texans can't afford insurance. We are getting decimated by this virus and I suppose that is enough for people to question our leaders. I hope things are blue ish up where you are!

[alee_grrl]

Our family dinners can definitely be fascinating. :D

Thankfully Vermont is largely a blue state already. We have pockets of conservatives, but the state tends overall towards more liberal and progressive views for the most part.

[switterbeet]

Fascinating learning how this stuff works via DW!

Frigging awful situation but I feel like, having done a summer of roadkill surveys/euthanasia of wounded wildlife, I can very much understand the reaction of not being overwhelmed and just getting angry at the actual root of the issue.

[jpegghost]

Man I wouldn't be able to do that. I can handle dead kids, weeping family members, disfigurements, tragic deaths ... But a sad animal? Cry.