What Happens When The Coroner Leaves?

(soft music)

[Tony] When somebody dies and they're not found,

after a course of time the body, once it sets into

rigor mortis and comes out of rigor mortis,

it starts to decompose.

The gases inside the stomach will eventually expand,

causing the body to balloon and eventually burst at

different orifices.

The body will literally decompose, it'll start to fall into

pieces and turn to mush.

If you can imagine pouring a quart of oil on a floor,

how it would spread out,

that's kind of what bodily fluid will do.

[Man] Body. She was laying this way.

(blade scraping)

Going into a home where somebody's passed away,

of course you're gonna be dealing with all types of

bodily fluids: blood, saliva, spinal fluids, cerebral fluid.

Not knowing who the person was,

not knowing the history on them,

you can encounter anything from hepatitis

to clostridium difficile.

Or you're gonna be worried about viruses and bacteria or

disease that may be in the home or

around the biological matter itself.

We're concerned about everything.

You never know what you're gonna get at any home, I mean,

you can pick up one of those flesh-eating bacterias at

any house which is why we're wearing gloves,

N95 rated masks, safety goggles, things like that.

We use a product that has a

hydroperoxide solution base in it.

We will spray that, apply that to certain areas that we

suspect are affected by a biological matter.

[Man] Right here it's starting an

ethanol reaction, turns white.

We'll confirm that it is bio and then

it'll either be cleaned, if it's something that

can't be cleaned, if it's a porous surface or something

that's semipermeable, where the bio will soak into it,

then our recommendation is to remove it.

(saw cutting)

[Tony] We have had to remove portions of structure

to remove biological matter.

I've had to remove bathtubs, sheetrock, baseboards,

ceiling tiles, carpet padding, subfloor.

So yeah, there are some pretty significant dangers

to the job but with proper protection and training,

anything can be tackled.

I encounter a lot of families that are distraught.

Going into a situation like that and being sympathetic,

and empathetic as well, towards families,

putting them at ease and going in and taking care of the

situation at hand when we're there is really what

drives me to do this, to help people.