Last journey: Photo tour to the morgue. Last journey: Photo tour to the morgue (79 photos)

Author: A few days ago I happened to visit an ordinary morgue. It would seem, what's wrong with that? Well - the morgue, well - we'll all be there. That's the point, that without being an employee of the morgue or his friend, there is no special opportunity for "outsiders" to inspect and even more so to shoot all the premises. Relatives of the deceased visit only the farewell hall and a couple of rooms ready for their reception, medical students visit the audience and sometimes the sectional.
In the review under the cut, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with how the true last path happens - the path of the body from the moment of death to the moment the coffin with the body is issued to relatives for further burial / sending to the crematorium. The review is illustrated, but as ethical as possible. There is only one corpse in the pictures, and the one with a bag on his head.

It all starts with the fact that a person dies.
This can happen at home, or outside the home, or even in the hospital.
Death can be detected immediately - by those around or close, or maybe after a different amount of time, which affects the form in which the corpse will be delivered to the morgue.

On “suspicion of death” they call an ambulance, with which the police arrive. The doctor declares death, and the body is taken to the morgue.
If the death occurred in a hospital, the police do not seem to be needed.

1. And so, they bring him here ...

2. A door with a sign "reception of bodies", a forgotten gurney, and right there - coffins

5. The mortuary consists of two floors and a basement. The first refrigerating chamber is disabled for lack of need for it (the second one is enough, which is in the basement)

6. Then there is a table on which the body is washed if necessary. Please note - the table is granite. According to the orderly, such tables (Russian, stone) are much more convenient than more modern iron (imported) ones - they do not rattle and are easier to clean. It is these tables that are used in the morgue, which appeared some time ago on the Internet marked "Prison morgue" (although in fact this is one of the Moscow morgues at the time of the influx of customers) - the rest of the photos can be found by Google.

7. Then measurement takes place (height is measured - to determine the size of the coffin: the coffin must be 20 cm longer than the body) and registration. Here the ambulance doctor hands over the body to the orderly on duty and Required documents. At this moment, a person finally ceases to be a person, and instead of a full name, he is assigned a number, which is written on a tag and tied to his wrist (a more familiar option is to a toe).

8. Orderlies working here in daily shifts and regularly touching all sorts of different things are required to wash their hands often and wash themselves completely. For this purpose, the morgue is full of sinks, showers and changing rooms.

11. By the way, there is also Internet and Wi-Fi in the morgue (in a hospital where patients are alive, such a benefit is not provided)

12. Relatives need the registry more - after all, it is here that the registration of the services provided by the mortuary takes place, a death certificate is issued, etc.

13. A person is capable of dying suddenly or after a long illness. Citizens who have been observed by various doctors and have corresponding records in the medical records (medical records at the place of treatment), after being delivered to the morgue, are sent to the dressing room, where orderlies bring them into proper shape using simple cosmetics

16. The range of services of the morgue also includes the sale of coffins and accessories, the organization of farewell, funeral services and the provision of funeral transport.

18. Coffins, wreaths and other exhibited in the sales area

21. And also in the corridor of the first floor

23. And for some reason in the toilet

24. The coffin on the right is Muslim

25. The cat on the "roof" of the Muslim coffin is not included. By the way, there are four cats here - a cat and three cats. Keep them to control the absence of rodents that tend to eat the body.

26. In addition to the length (from 160 to 210), the coffins differ in width. For obese citizens, a standard coffin called a "deck" is provided.

For completely non-standard, it is possible to make a coffin to order.

27. If the death of a person was not so predictable, his body is sent for an autopsy. The autopsy takes place in rooms called "sectional rooms". Sectional look like this (the explosive metal tables are just here)

30. Autopsy tools

31. Another sectional, with its own tools

34. Hard lining-pillow under the head - numerous serifs from the tool

35. During the autopsy, the necessary samples, analyzes, samples are taken from the corpse

36. These samples are sent for analysis to the laboratories located on the second floor.

39. Place on duty on the second floor

40. Forensic experts have not been here for a long time, they left an empty room

41. But there are many laboratories

43. We look into several of them - a lot of equipment, understandable and not completely

46. Next Lab

49. Just Jungle

50. And one more laba

53. This unit is alive. It regularly squeaks and moves, the lid rises, the drum with cans makes some movements

54. The archive is filled in real time

55. There is also an archive on the second floor, in a more familiar form

57. And this is what thin tinted sections of organs look like, which are considered to determine the causes of death

59. Research answers

60. There is also an auditorium where students come

62. Although there are only two floors and a basement, there is an elevator, because it is inconvenient to move along the ladder with a wheelchair. The elevator connects the first floor and the basement, and on the second floor is its engine room

65. There is also a ventilation room

67. Rest room for orderlies

68. And the dining room where the mortuary workers have lunch

69. Also, the morgue has a roof - in good weather, you can go to hang out on it, start fireworks, etc., but in winter there is knee-deep snow on it

70. Basement of the morgue. First of all, in the basement there is another sectional and main refrigerator

72. A bag is put on the head of a corpse so that the face does not dry out.

73. Three cats live in the basement (there are two in the frame, the third was washed off ahead of time)

74. An unused pressure chamber-on-wheels is stored, to which nurses go to smoke.

75. And old medical records of long-dead and buried citizens

76. Underground tunnels converge to the basement of the morgue, connecting all the buildings of the hospital

78. After all the autopsy procedures, make-up, dressing, etc., traditionally on the third day the body in the coffin is given to relatives - from this veranda, where artificial flowers covered with snow stand forlornly

79. Well, what can I say in conclusion? According to the result of my communication with the orderly working there, it’s not at all scary to work there, it’s interesting in places, but mostly ordinary. And we cross our fingers so that you and your loved ones will not soon find themselves in this or a similar institution.

Thank you for attention! I hope it was interesting and not too disgusting.

It all starts with the fact that a person dies.

This can happen at home, or outside the home, or even in the hospital. Death can be detected immediately - by those around or close, or maybe after a different amount of time, which affects the form in which the corpse will be delivered to the morgue.

1. And so, they bring him here ...

2. A door with a sign "reception of bodies", a forgotten gurney, and right there - coffins

5. The mortuary consists of two floors and a basement. The first refrigerating chamber is disabled for lack of need for it (the second one is enough, which is in the basement)

7. Then measurement takes place (height is measured - to determine the size of the coffin: the coffin must be 20 cm longer than the body) and registration. Here, the ambulance doctor hands over the body and the necessary documents to the orderly on duty. At this moment, a person finally ceases to be a person, and instead of a full name, he is assigned a number, which is written on a tag and tied to his wrist (a more familiar option is to a toe).

11. By the way, there is also Internet and Wi-Fi in the morgue (in a hospital where patients are alive, such a benefit is not provided)

12. Relatives need the registry more - after all, it is here that the registration of the services provided by the mortuary takes place, a death certificate is issued, etc.

16. The range of services of the morgue also includes the sale of coffins and accessories, the organization of farewell, funeral services and the provision of funeral transport.

18. Coffins, wreaths and other exhibited in the sales area

21. And also in the corridor of the first floor

23. And for some reason in the toilet

24. The coffin on the right is Muslim

25. The cat on the "roof" of the Muslim coffin is not included. By the way, there are four cats here - a cat and three cats. Keep them to control the absence of rodents that tend to eat the body.

26. In addition to the length (from 160 to 210), the coffins differ in width. For obese citizens, a standard coffin called a "deck" is provided.

For completely non-standard, it is possible to make a coffin to order.

30. Autopsy tools

31. Another sectional, with its own tools

34. Hard lining-pillow under the head - numerous serifs from the tool

35. During the autopsy, the necessary samples, analyzes, samples are taken from the corpse

36. These samples are sent for analysis to the laboratories located on the second floor.

39. Place on duty on the second floor

40. Forensic experts have not been here for a long time, they left an empty room

41. But there are many laboratories

43. We look into several of them - a lot of equipment, understandable and not completely

46. Next Lab

49. Just Jungle

50. And one more laba

53. This unit is alive. It regularly squeaks and moves, the lid rises, the drum with cans makes some movements

54. The archive is filled in real time

55. There is also an archive on the second floor, in a more familiar form

57. And this is what thin tinted sections of organs look like, which are considered to determine the causes of death

59. Research answers

60. There is also an auditorium where students come

65. There is also a ventilation room

67. Rest room for orderlies

68. And the dining room where the mortuary workers have lunch

69. Also, the morgue has a roof - in good weather, you can go to hang out on it, start fireworks, etc., but in winter there is knee-deep snow on it

70. Basement of the morgue. First of all, in the basement there is another sectional and main refrigerator

72. A bag is put on the head of a corpse so that the face does not dry out.

73. Three cats live in the basement (there are two in the frame, the third was washed off ahead of time)

74. An unused pressure chamber-on-wheels is stored, to which nurses go to smoke.

75. And old medical records of long-dead and buried citizens

76. Underground tunnels converge to the basement of the morgue, connecting all the buildings of the hospital

Thank you for attention! I hope it was interesting and not too disgusting.

If you open a heavy door with the inscription "Mortuary. No unauthorized entry" and go a few steps, you can see a normal corridor with a couple of empty gurneys. After walking a couple of steps, you convince yourself that everything is not so scary - and then the smell overtakes you.

Remember the rhyme from childhood "What do crafts smell like?" - about the smell of dough in a bakery or the smell of shavings in a carpentry shop? Well, the morgue smells like death.

The wrong side of human life, its most unpleasant side - death, meets you in the morgue naked and unadorned. And people of various professions work at this penultimate stop of the express "life - eternity" - forensic experts, medical registrars and orderlies. These people have one task - not only to help relatives spend loved one on the last journey, but also to determine whether a person went there due to someone's intent or fault.

The difference between a pathologist and a medical examiner is in fault

The average layman does not care about the specifics of the professions of a pathologist and forensic expert - until someone dies. Here you have to involuntarily delve into the subtleties of the profession.
Death in the hospital, without suspicion of violent death - the deceased is sent to the pathologist. His task is to establish: did he die as a result of the disease and was his death inevitable - perhaps the diagnosis was erroneous, perhaps the treatment was incorrect?
All other cases fall within the area of responsibility of the forensic expert: whether a person died at home or on the street, whether there are signs of violent death or absent. The expert's task is to find the cause of death and answer the question: "Whose fault?" before himself and the law. Disease, coincidence or someone's malicious intent?
A man lived yesterday, loved - and he was loved, and today - he is on the sectional table. The reason for this is a disease that neither he, nor relatives, nor doctors suspected. It's non-violent sudden, death, but only a forensic expert can determine this.
A man fell in the bathroom and hit his head violent, premature death, let it be qualified as an accident.
A person gets on the table like a drowned man who fell through thin ice while fishing, but it turns out that first they crushed his head, and then threw his body into the hole - this is not just violent, it is criminal death.
Finding answers to all the riddles posed by a dead body is the job of a medical examiner.

Mortuary - penultimate stop

Forensic experts of the Office of the State Forensic Examination Committee of the Republic of Belarus for the Minsk region work in a morgue on the outskirts of the capital. The bodies of the dead and dead are brought here from several districts of the region.

- The complex consists of several buildings - in addition to the mortuary, administrative premises, forensic medical examination department, it houses a funeral services store and a farewell hall, - the state medical forensic expert starts the tour Mikhail Klimenko.

Before us are three doors, as in a gloomy fairy tale. If you go straight - you will get into a ritual store, if you go to the left - you will find yourself in a mortuary, to the right - you will visit the "department of a forensic medical examination for the reception of living persons."

- This is an outpatient appointment, at which an examination of persons is carried out to determine the nature of the severity of bodily injuries, and if it is simpler, an examination of the victims,- continues our guide.

It turns out that even among forensic experts there is a specialization. In addition to experts involved in the reception of living persons and autopsies, there are also histologists - they conduct research on tissue samples and determine the time, causes of death and prescription of injuries from them. Medical forensics can tell a lot from marks on clothing or a crime weapon. Chemists will answer the question of whether a person drank and how much, whether he took drugs or drugs, and if a person was poisoned, then with what kind of poison. Specialists biological department determine the objects of bioorigin and their belonging to one or another person - blood, secretions, hair, etc. But there are still expert biochemists and many other narrow specializations.

We are led to the left - to the morgue. We pass into a small corridor, doors, another corridor with empty gurneys - and then we are overtaken by a smell.

The guide, noticing our reaction, gives us time to get used to him, showing us the sanitary room. In a small room with a glass roof fit several desks, a sofa and even a refrigerator with a microwave.

- How can you eat here?

- A person gets used to everything. I no longer smell, sniffed for 2 months, says one of the nurses.

In his opinion, the work in the morgue is calm, at the same time interesting, and, as we could see, it sets you in a philosophical mood.

- Aren't you afraid of the dead?

- Now I'm more afraid of the living.

Painting on the wall in the sanitary room: specificity - appropriate

Everyone needs to be respected - both the living and the dead.

The dead and dead enter the morgue from the back door. A minibus pulls up, the doors swing open, and a gurney with a body rolls out. Orderlies are in charge of receiving and processing documents, they also conduct an inventory of property and prepare the body for an autopsy.

The brain protects its owner from shock - corpses on gurneys are not perceived as people, but rather like mannequins or wax sculptures. It is all the more strange to watch how the orderlies quickly but carefully shift the bodies and close the eyes of the dead - when someone close did not do it.

- Respect everyone - both the living and the dead, one of the orderlies remarks.

The autopsy itself is carried out in a sectional room, which is separated from the rest of the morgue by a room that serves as either a dressing room or a preoperative room. In this small room, experts and their assistants prepare for the autopsy: they put on special equipment - a blouse, pants, a dressing gown, an apron, a cap, a mask and special shoes.

Sectional - a small, unexpectedly bright room. In addition to a huge lamp, there is a large window with a frosted film, such glass transmits light well, but does not allow those passing by it to see what is happening in the room.

- Lighting is an indispensable assistant in our work. A simple example: when a bruise is just formed, it is burgundy, then turns blue, turns green, turns yellow. It is important for an expert to determine when he appeared, and natural light does not allow you to make a mistake.

On the sides of the entrance to the room - two metal sectional table. In some ways, they look like huge shower trays, the built-in sink, shower and drain for liquids add similarities.

There is also a small desk in the sectional room. During the autopsy, a medical registrar works behind him, whose task is to help the expert, leading the autopsy protocol under dictation. This position is usually occupied by women with an average medical education.

The tools that the expert uses during the autopsy look intimidating - a sectional knife, scissors, a saw, a hammer, a measuring spoon and something else, it is simply scary to ask about the purpose of some of them.

- This is not the whole set., - Mikhail Klimenko comments. - There is no need to place all the instruments on the preparation table - as needed, they are taken out of the cabinet and handed over by an assistant.

The orderlies shift the prepared body from the gurney to the table - the autopsy begins. The human brain is dissected using the "open book method": a scalp is removed from the head, the skull is opened - this is done with an electric saw - the brain is taken out and cut into "leaves". The corpse itself is usually opened according to the Shor method. A median incision is made on the body, through which the entire organ complex is removed, starting from the tongue and ending with the rectum. The expert must weigh each organ and carefully examine, describing the condition and damage to the medical registrar. Samples are taken immediately for histological, chemical and other analyses.

- Stories that we take organs for experiments or feeding to pets are stories. From each organ we take a fragment half a centimeter thick and 1-2 centimeters long. After analysis, all biological samples are disposed of by cremation,- says the expert.

In the morning, the expert performed three autopsies - all three died of natural causes. And only in one case, the specialist could not immediately accurately determine the cause of death - despite the obvious signs of heart failure, the deceased drank a lot of alcohol, so the test results will be able to give an accurate answer to the question "alcohol poisoning or heart failure".

After opening, all organs are placed in the body, and the nurse sews up the incision. Then the body is washed, put in order and begin to prepare for transfer to relatives.


On one of the tables there is a cheerfully colored blanket, on it is a set of cosmetics. Relatives often ask: "Make it prettier"

We are relieved to go outside. The light seems unusually bright, the air - unusually fresh, and life - beautiful and amazing.

You can and should be afraid of death, but it will not be possible to avoid it.

People die every day. Unfortunately, not a single duty of a forensic expert can do without autopsies.

On average, the morgue of the Office of Forensic Medical Examinations in the Minsk region, serving the Minsk, Logoisk districts and Zaslavl, receives 3-4 "patients" a day.

The medical examiner talks about what kills Belarusians.

- In my opinion, the most dangerous killer is alcohol. One way or another, it becomes the cause of death in half the cases.

A person who does not drink much has a protective mechanism - as soon as he "goes through" the norm, the gag reflex comes into play, which frees the body from excess alcohol. In an alcoholic or just a person who drinks a lot, the reaction is suppressed. He goes beyond the line where alcohol is absorbed in any quantities, but the body can no longer cope with such doses, which leads to death - alcohol poisoning.

There are also cases of poisoning by alcohol substitutes - various liquids not intended for internal use, but nevertheless used instead of alcoholic beverages, ranging from cologne to "singed" vodka based on technical alcohols.

Another reason for numerous deaths due to alcohol: after drinking, he fell from the balcony; got hit by a car in a state of intoxication; quarrels and conflicts in a drunken stupor, which often end in a stabbing, fight and death.

And if we add to all of the above all those diseases that arise on the basis of alcohol abuse and ultimately lead to death ...

The expert is also frightened by the number of suicides.

- I don't do statistics, but there are too many of them. Someone gets tired of fighting the disease, someone - with lack of money, someone - with loneliness. It is customary to feel sorry for suicides, but I cannot do this. Working with death every day, it is hard to imagine that someone of their own free will can refuse such a gift as life.

The worst thing is that suicides have become "younger". Mikhail Klimenko is not talking about those over 30, - we are talking about teenagers. Recently, he had to deal with the autopsy of a tenth grader.

- The child hanged himself because of unhappy love. And this is not an isolated case. What is going on in the minds of these children?

Listening to an expert, one involuntarily asks the question: is there at least one positive side?

- The medical examiner must determine the exact cause of death. He can establish that the driver who hit a person lying on the road has already run over a corpse. Or she can prove that a woman who was severely beaten by her husband for decades and who only once rebuffed him, pushing him away, did not cause his death. He didn't die from a fall, it was alcohol poisoning that killed him.Do you think the triumph of justice is a sufficient reason to love your profession?

A visit to the morgue and conversations with a forensic expert leave an ambivalent impression that is impossible to formulate: "we will all be there" is intertwined with the thought "how you want to live."

Death is to be feared, but it cannot be avoided. You can only make every effort to ensure that, having lived your life happily ever after, die in a dream quietly and calmly, surrounded by relatives and friends.

The editors would like to thank the Office of the State Forensic Examination Committee of the Republic of Belarus for the Minsk Region for their assistance in preparing the material.

I was in the morgue once and a very long time ago, when I had an internship in the operational department of the police. For days on end, I was doing just that, sorting through papers in a dark office, sewing files and drinking tea in the background of a series about cops playing on a tube TV. The opera said that all these films are fairy tales and naive comedies to relieve stress, this does not happen in life.

Sometimes it turned out to communicate with operas about work. O personal life no one spoke, because no one had it. I was immediately warned that if I wanted to be an operative, then I would have to forget about normal relations with women. This work is difficult, nervous, paperwork and "round the clock". Romantics and dreamers have nothing to do here. There will be no time to pay due attention to the lady of the heart.

Several times we made duty trips to communal apartments, I saw how people live in them and what they do there. I remember how we knocked on the door of a woman who turned to the police to find her missing husband, and her husband opened the door. It turns out that he returned home long ago, but his wife was too lazy to report this to the police.

The opera house was warned that they would definitely take me to the morgue, they would show me a lot of blind man's blind spots. I got excited, because I didn't know how I would react to the smells and what I saw "the other side of life", but I resolutely agreed to the excursion, since the obligatory report on the practice had to be made interesting and "excellent".

That day has come, and we rushed to the morgue. Why exactly we arrived here, what is required of me there, no one told me and did not explain. I had no time for questions - I thought about whether I would be sick or not. We arrived at the place, went into the building, someone gave me a gown, rubber gloves and a medical mask, and after 15 seconds I was ready to "hike".

We left the lobby and found ourselves in a brightly lit room, where there were several tables, on one of them lay a body, which I was prevented from examining by working people in dressing gowns. They talked about something, joked and laughed, calmly went about their business. I didn’t feel sickening smells, on the contrary, there was an interesting specific smell that was new to me. My internal tension began to pass, and I relaxed.

We went further and found ourselves in a cold room, which I called to myself "a wax museum." I have never seen so many bodies and did not expect to see. They lay on the floor, on shelves, in the aisles, on wheelchairs, everywhere. The first thing that struck me about them was the unnatural size of the bodies. Each figure, as it seemed to me or seemed to me, had some kind of swelling, because of which they looked like dolls, and not like people, albeit dead ones. Not all "wax figures" had their mouths or eyes closed, not all of them lay in their place in a delicate pose. They don't stand on ceremony here, and I understood that right away. The second striking thing for me was that the skin color of dead man can be completely different shades, and all these shades are disgusting and unpleasant to look at.

A morgue worker pushed a gurney past me with a body covered by a sheet, and his pale, protruding hand touched my dressing gown. Nothing special, but memorable.

Following us, another police officer arrived with a camera and began to photograph the body of a man with tattoos on his shoulder. He filmed him from different angles and angles, and the last shots were made standing above him on a stool. The photographer did his job so recklessly, as if he did it on a paid order at some wedding. The body of this man, finally, was imprinted forever, but someone was impatient to make him speak, and with the index fingers on his lips they began to playfully help him close and open his mouth.

After that, a young man appeared inside, he was led to the body of an elderly woman and asked: "Is this her?" The guy answered in the affirmative that this was his mother, and I was asked to write down on a piece of paper all the data about him and his late mother.

I spent only 30 minutes there or a little more, and there are already so many events, but everything was just beginning.

We were asked to find the corpse of some gypsy, and we all silently began looking for him for some reason. His body lay in an adjacent room, in which there were even more dead people. His blue-green body was found and laid in the aisle, and then removed back. As I understand it, the issue with the gypsy was somehow resolved.

After that, we went to a large package, they opened it for us, and I saw a rotten head of a man with worms. The decomposed body of a man, who was found in the basement of a residential building, was packed in a bag. I was told that I needed to identify the identity of this person, and for this it would be a good idea to take his fingerprints. We began to open this unbearably smelly package further to get to the dead man's hand, and I felt sick from the cadaverous smell. I didn't go any further with it. The hand was found, but it was dark in color, and we doubted the effectiveness of fingerprinting. But it was decided to try to take fingerprints. Due to the fact that the dead man's fingertips fail when pressed and do not have elasticity, it is necessary to inject some liquid from a syringe under the skin so that the finger swells. The guys did it skillfully and masterfully, they began to take prints, but in the end they decided that it was necessary to cut the wrist and send it to the laboratory. The man was hastily packed back, because there was no further strength to enjoy his smell.

Morgue - how much in this word: for some - fear, for others - grief, and for others - work. A young pathologist, Olga Kishonkova, told Bolshoy Derevnya why she loves her profession, why autopsies are dangerous, and whether the life of a morgue in Russian series about cops is close to reality.

Studies

I have been working as a pathologist at the Chapaev Central City Hospital for two years now. I dreamed about this profession from the 8th grade and already at the time of entering the medical university, I dismissed all other specializations. So no one forced me or asked me, there were no doctors in my family either. All relatives thought that I would graduate from the Polytechnic University, become a process engineer and work at a factory. But I'm not looking for easy ways.

Pathology fascinated me. This is a fundamental science that allows you to thoroughly study everything and get to the bottom of the essence, to find out what other doctors cannot see, simply because they do not have the opportunity to get so deep. Only we give the final and most accurate diagnosis. I must say that among my fellow students - and the flow of students of the medical faculty is about three hundred people - I am the only one who chose pathology. At the same time, my classmates were interested in this specialty, respected my choice and always supported me.

The first time we got to the autopsy was during a couple of pathological anatomy, which is quite logical. The lesson took place in the morgue of the Pirogov hospital. We observed the autopsy of a 70-year-old man who died of an ischemic stroke. It was both mesmerizing and a little frightening sight, everyone was standing with their mouths open. No one got sick, because in the first place we were driven by interest.

I believe that every student medical school should go to the showdown. How can a cardiologist deal with heart diseases if he did not see this very organ with his own eyes, did not touch it with his hands, but only admired the picture in the textbook? However, the teacher does not have the right to force the student to come to the autopsy, even if the reason for the reluctance is fear. I had a friend who studied at the pediatric faculty. When her group was taken to the autopsy, she refused to attend this class because she was pregnant - she did not want any extra worries.

I am from Chapaevsk and since the third year I spent the whole summer in the Chapaevsk morgue. It was no secret to anyone that I was going to work there. They also knew about my experience in the internship, where I underwent specialized training, so they immediately entrusted me to perform autopsies on my own, under the supervision of a supervisor.

It was there that I realized that my expectations from work and reality coincide. I expected that every day I would go to work with anticipation and desire, and it happened. There has never been a day when I didn't want to go to the hospital.

Research

My job is not only to study the bodies of the dead, but also to study biopsies ( tissue samples - approx. ed.) living people. Each piece is unique - there are no identical glasses, so every day I see something new.

The process of tissue research is as follows: first, samples taken from a person must lie down in a formalin solution for a day, then they are poured with paraffin - in order to get a thin, thin section. It is fixed on glass, and then painted - I can’t see a colorless preparation in a microscope. All these manipulations are performed by laboratory assistants. When the preparation dries, the glass is brought to me - I look at it under a microscope and make my conclusion. The entire process usually takes three to four days.

Pathologists have a little more vacation than other doctors - 42 days a year because of the harmfulness of vacation. This is due to the fact that we work with chemicals, for example, with formalin, laboratory assistants use different paints, acids. Sometimes you come home and feel that your clothes smelled of chemicals. Naturally, we breathe all these fumes - it's the same as being in a chemical factory.

However, disgusting smells, as everyone thinks, in the sectional ( room where autopsies are performed - approx. ed.) no, if all the rules of sanitation are observed. There are certain smells that depend on what pathology the deceased had, but during operations the same ones are in the operating room. If you lead a blindfolded person, he will not understand which of these two rooms he is in.

Operating procedure

Every day I go to Chapaevsk from Samara. I try to be at work by 7:45. I change into work clothes - this is both a safety measure and my own interests: I think no one wants the body fluids of the deceased to remain on his everyday clothes. Then I leave the office for the time of mandatory processing - quartzing. I go to the laboratory, greet my colleagues, find out the scope of future work: how many dead people have been received, how many biopsies. We discuss with the chief questions on autopsies, we invite the attending physicians to them. In theory, they should be present at the autopsy of their patients. It happens that the doctor does not come - for example, he is a surgeon and is performing an operation at that moment or is on a round. It's not criminal - anyway, after the autopsy, we call him to announce the cause of death.

Before starting, we must study the medical history: when the person was admitted to the hospital, with what complaints, what treatment was prescribed, what happened next, what resuscitation measures were provided. Then the head of the department distributes who will get which autopsy. And let's get to work.

At an autopsy, the most important thing for a doctor is his own safety: you won’t do any harm, and you can get infected very easily. Hence the appropriate form of clothing: a polyethylene apron, a cap and goggles or a screen. The screen protects the entire face, and if you are wearing glasses, you definitely need to cover your respiratory organs with something - at least put on a mask. Gloves and sleeves, rubber shoes are required. Under all this protection, a surgical suit must be worn, which is constantly in the department and laundered in the hospital laundry.

Also, the department must have an anti-plague suit - in case of very dangerous infections transmitted by airborne droplets. It completely protects all skin integuments, mucous membranes and respiratory tract, fits snugly to the skin. The costume consists of a jumpsuit, two coats, a hood, a scarf, goggles, a cotton-gauze mask, rubber gloves, boots, stockings and a towel.

We work five days a week from 8:00 to 14:00 with days off on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the doctor on duty comes out: he performs autopsies on newly admitted patients so that they do not accumulate a lot over the weekend. We deal with the dead on Sunday on Monday. Autopsies are performed in the first half of the day, after lunch we do not work.

Documentation

During the autopsy, several pieces of tissue are taken from each organ for histological examination. It is performed to confirm the diagnosis and allows you to accurately determine the presence of pathologies in other organs and tissues. Thus, the autopsy protocol consists of two parts: the autopsy itself and the histological examination of the preparations.

In the first section, the pathologist describes in detail what he saw at the autopsy, starting with the external examination and ending with the state of all organs and tissues. This should be done immediately after the procedure, while everything is fresh in memory. When the histology is ready, it is looked at under a microscope, evaluated, entered into the protocol, given a conclusion, printed out, signed and handed over to the attending physician.

In addition to protocols for autopsies and biopsies, I compile a report on deaths from myocardial infarction for the week - every Tuesday I submit reports to the chief medical officer, who then reports to the head physician. Once a month I do a reconciliation of mortality with the registry office in order to identify errors and inconsistencies in medical death certificates in time. We also issue certificates upon request: people come for information about deceased relatives, which, for example, the bank requested.

I am sometimes told: "You are lucky - you do not meet scandalous patients." I can object: deceased patients have relatives - temperaments are different, behavior too. Sometimes conflicts arise due to misunderstandings: someone misunderstood something or we explained it wrong. I always try to prevent such situations, I never speak in a raised voice, for example, I am looking for peace negotiations.

Autopsies

Depending on the diagnosis, there are five categories of autopsy complexity. The fifth, most difficult, category includes, for example, people with AIDS and HIV. First, it is an increased risk. Secondly, HIV infection causes complications in many organs, and it is necessary to recognize in which organ what happened. But patients with strokes are the second category. There are no big difficulties here - a stroke is visible immediately.

If I have any doubts, I can postpone the diagnosis until the histological examination is carried out - everything can be seen much better under a microscope. Or I can make a presumptive diagnosis, and then change it on the basis that histological studies gave a different picture.

Morally, the most difficult thing is to autopsy young guys and women, especially those who died during childbirth - in Pirogovka I happened to take part in such autopsies a couple of times. It is a pity and a shame for these people, but death is death: it is not for us to decide their fate.

Autopsies of children under 14 years of age are carried out only in the First Children's City Hospital, this is done by individual specialists - pediatric pathologists. We mainly bring people aged 60-80. Diseases are different, most often the causes of death are stroke and heart attack. These are acute and sudden conditions, and doctors do not always have time to prevent death.

On average, we perform 2-3, sometimes 4 autopsies per day. Biopsies, of course, are many more. There is also such a concept as cutting - when an organ is cut out during an operation, for example, the gallbladder or uterus. It must be sent to us, and we describe in detail: color, size, thickness, which can be seen on the section, we also take samples for histology.

There are days when there are no autopsies at all, and sometimes the opposite is true: once on Saturday no one had the opportunity to be on duty, and on Monday 13 corpses were waiting for us. But you have to consider that we take over the whole south Samara region: Pokhvistnevo, Pestravka, Volga region, Khvorostyanka, Krasnoarmeisky district. Many hospitals do not have their own morgues, and the corpses are brought to us. Biopsies are also sent from all hospitals adjacent to Chapaevsk, where there is no pathology department.

stereotypes

There are three pathologists in our department: the head, me, and a doctor who has been working in the morgue for a very long time, now he is over 70 years old. He is mainly engaged in histological studies, because it is already physically difficult for him to perform autopsies. There are three laboratory assistants working in the laboratory. We have good relations, we clarify all misunderstandings immediately.

The head of our department is such an impressive guy. His appearance is fully consistent with the stereotypical ideas about the huge gloomy men-pathologists. However, my observations do not confirm this stereotype: for example, very beautiful girls- slender, smiling. In Pirogovka, too, all pathologists, mostly women, are intelligent, highly educated people. There are no contradictions here: a considerable part of our activity - working with a microscope in the laboratory - does not imply hard physical labor, and at an autopsy you can always call a nurse for help.

We do not encounter ridiculous deaths - this is to forensic medicine. In general, it must be said that pathology and forensic examination are two completely different branches. Forensic scientists have a clear division into doctors involved in autopsy ( openings - approx. ed.) and histologists, it is obligatory to take blood and biological fluids of the deceased. We don't have that. All their deaths, unlike ours, are hospital, criminal or sudden. As a result, we are united only by the fact that we perform autopsies and look at histology. But these are such common features - it's like saying that all doctors are the same, because they treat.

Rumors that the things of the deceased are stolen in morgues are generally nonsense. Most often, people who died in the hospital are brought in hospital clothes, without things.

People often ask if our corpses have come to life and if it’s scary to be in the morgue. They can be understood: they encounter the dead infrequently, at some sad moment in their lives. When you see the dead every day, it becomes commonplace for you. You get used to everything. About the walking dead - no, guys, this does not happen.