Grossest Thing So Far
CD in Play: Miles Davis, Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud
WORK RELATED RATING: G for Gross
The life of an Autopsy Tech is certainly not a pretty one. With that in mind, I have decided to mark work related posts as Work Related, just as it is up above. If in green type it is in N for Normal. If Red it is G for Gross. I do this for the squeamish and the faint of heart.
I had three autopsies last week and one today. The further we go along, the more work I am doing myself. Today, for instance, I was required to do about 85% of the scalp cutting. We make an incision from just behind one ear over behind the other ear. We then use a scalpel to cut the connective tissue attaching the scalp to the skull and peel it away so we can use a Stryker saw (which does not do well with soft tissue) to cut through the skull so we can remove the brain.
Anyhow, the front top went well and peeled down quite well. I started on the back top portion, working on the tissue with a scalp and pullingit away. At one point my trainer stated that I should set down the scalpel and try pulling the skin away from the scalp. I did so. It is slippery. Especially slippery since there was extensive head trauma. It slipped out of my hands and sprayed me and the wall behind me with blood and connective tissue.
I take proper precautions and use gloves, gowns, face mask, eye sheilds and head covering. So I look over at the doctor and ask him how bad it is and point out a few flecks that managed to hit the unprotected parts of my face. Not much and not bad. However, while washing up to go to lunch, I notice that the underside of my jaw is quite bloodied where my mask didn't cover. I washed up and headed for lunch. It didn't hit get anywhere it shouldn't, so I am not worried about potential pathogen exposure - but it does make one think.
WORK RELATED RATING: G for Gross
The life of an Autopsy Tech is certainly not a pretty one. With that in mind, I have decided to mark work related posts as Work Related, just as it is up above. If in green type it is in N for Normal. If Red it is G for Gross. I do this for the squeamish and the faint of heart.
I had three autopsies last week and one today. The further we go along, the more work I am doing myself. Today, for instance, I was required to do about 85% of the scalp cutting. We make an incision from just behind one ear over behind the other ear. We then use a scalpel to cut the connective tissue attaching the scalp to the skull and peel it away so we can use a Stryker saw (which does not do well with soft tissue) to cut through the skull so we can remove the brain.
Anyhow, the front top went well and peeled down quite well. I started on the back top portion, working on the tissue with a scalp and pullingit away. At one point my trainer stated that I should set down the scalpel and try pulling the skin away from the scalp. I did so. It is slippery. Especially slippery since there was extensive head trauma. It slipped out of my hands and sprayed me and the wall behind me with blood and connective tissue.
I take proper precautions and use gloves, gowns, face mask, eye sheilds and head covering. So I look over at the doctor and ask him how bad it is and point out a few flecks that managed to hit the unprotected parts of my face. Not much and not bad. However, while washing up to go to lunch, I notice that the underside of my jaw is quite bloodied where my mask didn't cover. I washed up and headed for lunch. It didn't hit get anywhere it shouldn't, so I am not worried about potential pathogen exposure - but it does make one think.
posted by Magnus at 17:37
4 Comments:
But what about us who read this via an RSS reader, where the colours don't come through?
Also, don't you thing G-reen for G-ross would be more appropriate and R-ed for R-egular?
Oh, and BTW.
EEEEEEEEEwwwww.
EW.
That is why I'm not there unless I need to be.
Innocent bystander and all that...That's why I like face shields...they keep me and my face squeaky clean.
My commisserations. I just got to fiddle with his liver...you got the brainy heady bit, which I've never really been able to stomach very well.
Braaaaaaaiiiinnnsss!
Macanuck: Suffer.
Geo: It is an odd thing that I can encounter an old friend on this job, especially one who will just waltz in with a routine inquiry while I am removing organs or I am sewing up a body after an autopsy. Or receive calls like, "Hey, you know that guy you were just working on? Can I get a piece of his liver so I can make up some blocks?"
(I sometimes work at the same Hospital as Geo)
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