Out of Morbid Curiosity...

[hmm...]

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What was your first experience with a dead body/death (in real life)? These experiences are often life changing events that will either concrete your desire to enter medicine or scare you away from the field. What were you feeling and thinking?

Although I have never been in the presence of a death yet, I have seen my first body near my high school bus stop on 9/11 (not in NYC). A man had jumped from his apartment building, but there was not as much blood as I would have expected. A crowd had already formed and someone had already called emergency services so there was nothing I could do for him. I still remember that the only odd thing about his body was that his legs seem to have been bent in an awkward position with only a tiny stream of blood originating from somewhere underneath his clothing. What was odd was that I did not feel sickened nor did any other people around me. I didn’t see anyone throw up or anything. Everyone including me was in a state of wonder and curiosity. Strange.

 

[ToolDoc]

That's disgusting.

 

[SlippingSloth]

First... hmmm when I was volunteering in the ICU freshman year of college a woman died of massive internal bleeding. I had to take her to the morgue. Morgues are eerie places

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Dead bodies have never bothered me....I have so many more problems with the live ones that the dead ones are easy. There's a saying that "Life's pleasant, death is peaceful, it's the transition between the two that is a real b-tch."

To answer the question though, the first dead body I saw was as a volunteer first responder while in high school...I think the guy died of a heart attack while asleep, because he was found dead in the morning by his wife. I hope it doesn't sound cold or anything but I've seen so many deaths (I would guess probably in the neighborhood of 400-500, over approximately 10 years, not counting the ones I've dealt with while working for the funeral home) that they all just kind of blur together unless there was something unique about the case.

Personally, the most disgusting thing I have ever seen is childbirth and after delivering three babies as an EMT I must say that seeing that is the ONLY thing that really makes me hesitate about med school. Yes, I am so not looking forward to my OB/GYN rotation.

 

[asunshine]

i don't even remember seeing my first patient die! i do remember, when i was training, knowing it was happening before my eyes (i.e. a pt's family had decided to withdraw care) and just wondering, really, where the distinction is between dead and alive....when their soul actually leaves the body. (i.e. if you can resuscitate a clinically "dead" person, were they dead? or, if their EKG still reads those "agonal" beats (one every couple seconds) are they still alive?)

anyways, you get used to it. and it's kind of special if you can make someone's inevitable passing easier to bear.

 

[hmm...]

That's disgusting.

sorry, i tried to not be too graphic. I guess I should have put a warning or something. But since we all all hoping to be doctors here, I thought that we should be able to handle such things.

anyways, you get used to it. and it's kind of special if you can make someone's inevitable passing easier to bear.

Its probably very depressing to see people go on a bad note knowing that they have unfinished business they still have to do on this earth (e.g. someone who never personally forgave their father, but always wanted to).

 

[dbhvt]

a guy in the street in moscow. everyone just stepped over him and kept moving. it was strange.

 

[asunshine]

Its probably very depressing to see people go on a bad note knowing that they have unfinished business they still have to do on this earth (e.g. someone who never personally forgave their father, but always wanted to).

I guess that's the special part--when the patient hasn't died yet, there is still "work" that can be done. And it's pretty cool to see that happen (when it does), knowing you might have helped bring closure/tranquility/relief to the patient or family.

 

[rajad10]

my first time = hospice

i was hanging out with my patient when it happened. it hit me hard at first but then i realized how surreal the moment was

 

[L8DYV]

What was your first experience with a dead body/death (in real life)? These experiences are often life changing events that will either concrete your desire to enter medicine or scare you away from the field. What were you feeling and thinking?

Although I have never been in the presence of a death yet, I have seen my first body near my high school bus stop on 9/11 (not in NYC). A man had jumped from his apartment building, but there was not as much blood as I would have expected. A crowd had already formed and someone had already called emergency services so there was nothing I could do for him. I still remember that the only odd thing about his body was that his legs seem to have been bent in an awkward position with only a tiny stream of blood originating from somewhere underneath his clothing. What was odd was that I did not feel sickened nor did any other people around me. I didn’t see anyone throw up or anything. Everyone including me was in a state of wonder and curiosity. Strange.

Havn't had one yet!

 

[USArmyDoc]

First... hmmm when I was volunteering in the ICU freshman year of college a woman died of massive internal bleeding. I had to take her to the morgue. Morgues are eerie places

I can't even count how many bodies I brought to the morgue. Morgues are definitely eerie...try being in one at 11pm. The worst part was that the hospital was refurbishing their old morgue so they made a temporary one outside. So, there it was pouring and I was bringing a person to the morgue.

 

[ethyl]

The first two dead people I saw in real life, I got to fully dissect. 🙂

 

[nycpizza]

Great question.

I was dead for about 3 months (in a coma) when I was 16 years old.

It's all good, in hindsight. 😉


other than that, I first encountered a dead body during an EMS rotation in South Africa - a fatal car accident that killed 2 teenage boys. 🙁

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I can't even count how many bodies I brought to the morgue. Morgues are definitely eerie...try being in one at 11pm. The worst part was that the hospital was refurbishing their old morgue so they made a temporary one outside. So, there it was pouring and I was bringing a person to the morgue.

Nice....I have to go to the morgues at the local hospitals all the time to pick up bodies for the funeral home I work at part time. Yeah, it's definitely odd to be in there at some unholy hour of the morning getting a body and be going "Why the hell am I here? I should be asleep....*expletive* this, I'm going to go work at Starbucks."

 

[akinf]

I witnessed a child being born overseas where medical conditions were terrible, unfortunately the child passed away and the mother became ill. I will never forget the dead baby.

But on a lighter note, I've figured out which schools I am applying to next year; they are Canadian so you probably won't recognize most of them.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I witnessed a child being born overseas where medical conditions were terrible, unfortunately the child passed away and the mother became ill. I will never forget the dead baby.

But on a lighter note, I've figured out which schools I am applying to next year; they are Canadian so you probably won't recognize most of them.

You should try embalming a baby sometime, especially one that has been autopsied. For sheer horror movie quality of a scene, you can't get any more macabre than that. That's something you don't forget- especially when your daughter is the same age as the baby.... 🙁

BTW, you'd be surprised. Quite a few of us (despite being Americans) tend to actually know about things beyond our borders.

 

[Em1]

Mine was when I was volunteering in an ER... the triage area got the call from emt's who had been doing cpr for over half an hour on this lady. They knew she wasn't going to make it, but b/c of the type of arrest she was in (forgive me for not knowing the specifics) they were required to bring her in. I was allowed to stand in the back of the cpr room as they tried to resuscitate her and then called it.

I think it was a good first death experience to have, b/c I knew what was going to happen, and I never saw the woman conscious. It was still pretty weird though.

 

[DrWorkNeverDone]

Nice....I have to go to the morgues at the local hospitals all the time to pick up bodies for the funeral home I work at part time. Yeah, it's definitely odd to be in there at some unholy hour of the morning getting a body and be going "Why the hell am I here? I should be asleep....*expletive* this, I'm going to go work at Starbucks."

hehe reminds me of something. I use to work at Jack-n-the-box during the graveyard shift, and here comes this herse at 3 am in the morning, wanting a carton of milk. LOL, I asked him if he had anyone with him, he said, no I just dropped my lonely buddy off 🙂

 

[pagemmapants]

My first "body" was already quartered and headless - anatomy class, summer of 2005. It was barely recognizable as human until you saw the skin on the hands, so it wasn't all that disturbing. Well, until we got to the week on brains, when they brought in a skull split right down the middle (midsaggitally) with the explicit instructions to NOT TURN THE SECTION OVER because the guy still had his face and we hadn't signed release forms. THAT was the only disturbing one.

I haven't lost a patient, despite 9 months EMSing

 

[hmm...]

i agree page. I went to a med school to visit and they also had those half heads in acrylic. People's bodies look like they came out of a text book. But if you stare at their faces long enough, you start connecting them to people in your life and get freaked out.

No one yet has felt sick. Perhaps it is the smell that really turn people off.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

hehe reminds me of something. I use to work at Jack-n-the-box during the graveyard shift, and here comes this herse at 3 am in the morning, wanting a carton of milk. LOL, I asked him if he had anyone with him, he said, no I just dropped my lonely buddy off 🙂

We have the wood-lined cardboard boxes that we put bodies in for transports and cremations. If we pick up a body at another funeral home (which we use a nondescript silver van, not the hearse, to do) we have to take one to put the body into. Well one day we were on the road to pick up a body from a funeral home like 2 hrs away and we stopped at a McDonald's. I look at the guy who was working with me and go:
"Get in the box...."
"What?"
"You heard me. Get in there. Let's have some fun with the drivethrough people."
So he climbs into the box (which has the logo and name of our funeral home in BIG letters on it) and I go through the drive through and the girl goes
"Anyone in there?"
"What does it matter?"
She hands me the food, which I sat on the floor within arms' reach of the box. This arm comes out of the box reaching for the bag of food. I smacked my buddy's hand and it retracted back into the box "God d--n it. I hate it when they do this!" And I drive off....leaving behind one very shocked fast food worker.... Ah, good times.....

 

[Wackie]

Nothing spectacular.
Ran a call on a female, not breathing, in her 60's. The daughter was the one who called 911. We got there. We couldn't check for lividity because of her dark skin, but her legs were showing signs of rigor. We called the ME and comforted the daughter a bit before leaving.
The woman died in her sleep, so she looked peaceful. She had quite an extensive medical history and the daughter was taking things well.

While in the ICU, I was there while a guy died. He'd coded in the ER twice, once in the cath lab, and there was nothing to be done. His family was there. I watched his heart rate slow on the monitor until it stopped. He was unconscious so he didn't look any different to me, honestly.
It was heart breaking to watch his wife become quickly overwhelmed with after death decisions.

 

[SuperC]

This is a damn interesting thread.
-C

 

[newbie1kenobi]

First dead person?

I was 6 or 7 years old and a tenant was renting a room in our carriage house. The next thing I knew, the man was dead and from what I remember, I was told that he died in his sleep. I took a peek, saw the dead body, and thought that the guy was just sleeping. 😴

 

[45408]

My little brother, when I was 3.5 years old, and I remember the entire day quite vividly. Other than him, a few random funerals here and there, most recently my grandpa five years ago.

 

[junebuguf]

I have a story for you. My cousin was gay (we grew up in an exceedingly conservative extended family), left his home and came to live with my family. He never told anyone in my family about his sexuality, we never asked. He went to community college and got a job there. After living with us for less than a year, he crashed my mom's car, and then flipped out. He ran away from home and moved to another city with his boyfriend. This was all a big shock to us, since no one even suspected he was gay. My dad had to hire a private investigator to find out where he was. Anyway, so we all thought that was that and pretty much forgot about him. This was in April, several years ago.

In December of the same year, I came home for break, and we got a phone call one night from the police. It turned out that his boyfriend was breaking up with him, but my cousin had nowhere to turn, so he'd asked his boyfriend to drop him off at our house. So he drives him to my hometown and they park in the mall parking lot (three days before xmas), and my cousin pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head. He died instantly. There was an insane amount of publicity in the papers and on TV about him commiting suicide in a mall parking lot at the busiest time of the year.

My family had to go to the morgue to identify the body, but I didnt see him then. A few days later, at the funeral, my aunt made me perform a burial ritual (we have a particular set of practices in my faith) which included sticking a small food offering into his mouth. I hesitated, she was annoyed and grabbed my hand and shoved it into his mouth. I can still recall, in every detail, what it felt like, and it still never ceases to make me nauseous.