Mortuaries are far more creepy when deserted than when working. I know. I worked in several of them for many years, partly to pay my way through flight school. So, the big question? What's it REALLY like? You apply, you are interviewed and at the interview you are either called back or not. If you are, it's to see an autopsy. That starts in the office with the photograph album. A lot of people don't get beyond that. Then, you are given scrubs, told where to go if you have to leave and they give you a few minutes alone to make up your mind. All the time, your eyes are riveted on those doors. You senses work overtime. Every sound, every smell, you imagine what it is you will see when they invite you in. Once through the doors, (in a well run mortuary) all you smell is disinfectant. If you smell anything else at the beginning of the day, its time to consider working elsewhere. A dirty mortuary is, literally, a death sentence.
The pathologist may or may not be there. The body is on the table. If its a fresh one, there is no smell worth noticing. Once the procedure starts, you smell muscle - think butchers shop and you've got it. Only when they open the bowel, (run the gut) and the stomach do things start to get unpleasant, but its not as bad as people think. Yes, you are standing there, watching a human being eviscerated, and no, its not easy. You do, however, soon detach from the emotional involvement - in fact, you have to. Imagine what doing an autopsy on a child would do to you if you didn't.
Which brings us to the decomps. There is no smell on earth like a decomposing human body, and a water decomp is worse still. They are literally an assault on all your senses. It really IS impossible to tell, at first look, even whether they are human bodies at all, much less whether they are male or female. Forget everything you have heard about using Vicks vaopr rub on your nose. It doesnt work, and no-one would use it. Experienced people become mouth-breathers really fast. Even then, the smell lingers on your clothes. You get unpopular at home too. (And in the hospital canteen). Most mortuary personnel tend to keep themselves to themselves.
That said, they are bright, well lit, scrupulously clean working areas. Every autopsy is an investigation. You are there to find out why the person died. It may help to improve medical care or procedures, or it may help a family to understand why a loved on died and so let them take that first step on the road to coming to terms with the death. Once they know it was inevitable, and there was nothing they or anyone could have done, they can move on.
Messy? Not as much as you might think. Distressing? Yes, sometimes it is. Worthwhile? Beyond doubt. Do people play sick jokes in there? Occasionally, you might get a med student try something, but the regular staff, never! And the few that do find themselves put in their place in no uncertain terms.
No, no one keeps their sandwiches in the coolers. No one makes lewd comments. No-one lies on the tables. There are a number of VERY resilient and long-lived nasties that inhabit mortuaries, and no one wants HIV or hepatitis or worse because of a "joke".
My one request to all urbexers visiting mortuaries, is "Please, take care - that last scrub down may not have been all that it should."
