We planned the event for 3 days and there was very little time to prepare (make inquiries, make contacts). From the inventory we had only a list of morgues. Since the concentration of morgues is the highest in the central region, we decided to systematically bypass them (“They will send us to one, we will go to another”). We immediately decided that there was no point in selling lies: "A man must see a corpse at least once" :).

At first we were, ended up in the Infectious Diseases Hospital, the local watchman was not particularly accommodating:

Can you get into the morgue?

On an excursion.

No, the morgue is closed.

And in general, in principle, is it real?

No, today is Sunday and the morgue is closed!

And we sank to the hospital on Liteiny. Having successfully bypassed the checkpoint, we easily found the morgue. There was a back door and a distribution room. We didn’t like it in the issuing hall, it seemed a little boring, and we decided to knock on the back. A decently dressed guy of about thirty came out, asked what we wanted.

Can you get into the morgue?

In principle, you can, but why do you need it?

To strengthen the spirit.

Well, let's go ... Only it smells bad there.

There were wreaths, coffins, other inventory. The man approached the bolted door, removed the bolt and opened it... All my ideas about morgues collapsed. In a small room, on the tables, there were corpses, almost in a pile, naked, of an unnatural greenish-gray color, thin, half-decomposed ... What he saw completely interrupted the smell. I looked at all this for about 2 minutes, peered into the details so that my consciousness would not push the picture out.

And it still needs to be opened ... - the guide said.

Is it possible to get an autopsy?

The doctor does the autopsy...

Where can you buy entrance tickets?

You guys need to go to Ekaterininsky 10, to the city morgue: there are drowned people, and firearms, and knives ...

On this we thanked the guide, wrote down the address and left. We agreed that they were not real, they looked like wax figures. In the rest, namely in the "shock" of what we saw, we did not agree. Then I walked along the Nevsky, feeling the unnaturalness of the world, where even the corpses do not look like themselves.

Alexander, 19.03.2006

This report is a good example of how you can "tune in" to the awareness of death. Make sure we are all mortal. And all of us sooner or later "play in the box." Another good example is that Alexander, who proposed and carried out this trip to the morgue, very creatively approached the practice of awareness of death :). Which makes me, as a training leader, generally happy (it's always nice to work with people who are ready to try and seek their knowledge). This is not only an example of "attuning to the awareness of death", but also an example of an independent search.

The only drawback that can be noted from this report (dedicated to the practice of death awareness) is the poor use of the results of this experience for a deep and serious study of the topic of death. In my opinion, most of this undoubtedly valuable experience was simply not used.

This experience could serve as a strong impetus, an incentive to search for inner knowledge about death, as well as to deepen and strengthen the idea of ​​death. In this case, I can state a weak reflection on this experience - "internal excavations were never carried out" :), as well as a weak transfer of this into my life. If this experience was used later, it was used extremely inefficiently. This came up in a follow-up session where the results for the week were discussed. However, in fairness, it is worth noting that this was the beginning of the practice of awareness of death. In any case, this is another step forward.

Valery Chugreev, 03/23/2005

huravi 25.03.2009 17:39

i study at a medical college literally yesterday we went to the morgue after the trip, a taste for life appeared, everything became somehow more acutely aware that you live, but sooner or later you will also lie on the autopsy table
SHORT WE WILL LIVE

Evgeny 26.09.2010 23:36

Guys, to be shocked, you need emotions.
Not just corpses.
Emotions are to take the body of the deceased / dead woman and, under the painful cry of loved ones and relatives, take it out into the street and take it to the cemetery (or carry it).
And then - to keep.
You will receive the biggest shock when it will be your relatives and friends or relatives of your loved ones. Or your friends. That's when you will understand xy from xy.
And so - you're just a little more. And they did not see death, although they looked at it with all their eyes.

[Reply] [Cancel reply]

Nina 13.06.2012 11:25

Fully agree with Evgeny
And also - to realize it, you need to go home to the deceased (just on the street, with you) on your own and inform your relatives about the death - and fully feel the full weight of such news ...
After all, the dead, apparently, do not matter - it’s hard for the living, who have lost loved one...

[Reply] [Cancel reply]

_-Shadow-_ 10.10.2016 10:32

Studied in honey, were at the autopsy once.
In parallel, I have been reading Lobsang Rampa for several days now. It was easier to tune in to the fact that I would see just a body. And the autopsy is like cutting old special clothes into rags.

As it was written above - in fact, the corpse looked like an ideal wax doll (there was a girl of about 6 years old. It is enough to look at just a leg or an arm. This instantly caught my eye. A wax doll with the feeling that she is almost alive Just a little more and she will start moving by herself (the corpse was fresh, almost from a hospital bed).

I noticed that when they cut the body, I had a nasty feeling. It's like I'm being cut open... under anesthesia. Feelings are spot on. There is no pain, but the sensations themselves are nasty. Who was injected with an anesthetic, he knows.

All this slimy and wet, all this offal is unpleasant. But I did not notice a strong revulsion. I was more afraid of the smell than the contents of the person. When there is no smell, then it's not so disgusting)))

However...the expected stench was not there (it's still good that the body was young, and not some rotten and slagged adult/old man)))
There was a specific smell. I remember him well. I hear it distinctly when I pass by the meat department in the market)))

There was a vague and incomprehensible attitude to all this. Obsessive fears emerged from the old that this piece of meat had its own life (some kind of hostile entity that could suddenly wake up and start moving). I had the same garbage in relation to the TV as a child - there was an obsessive fear that something lives in it. Fear that it might come to life, "turn on".
From the new - that it's just a useless manikin or "a la Lego" constructor. True, without much opportunity to collect it back))
There was some anxiety about this abandoned body. "What's next for him?" I noticed in myself the fuss and haste, as if something else could be corrected or done better.
There was also some sadness. Something ended, something broke, it became empty and boring - that's how it can be defined. The main thing then is not to indulge)
I still understand that this sadness is not normal. Something is wrong here, there should not be any gravity. Death should be easier and simpler than we used to perceive it.

[Reply] [Cancel reply]

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 there is a measurement (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 mortuary 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.

Place final registration citizens (or mortuary) in each person is associated with disfigured bodies and the pungent smell of naphthalene and chlorine. Such a spectacle can rightfully be called one of the most terrifying and unpleasant. Is it possible to meet a person who wants to be in the morgue of his own free will? Probably not. However, someone must work in such an institution. This means that in the world there are brave daredevils who have dedicated their lives to "communication" with soulless bodies.

In the article, we will get acquainted with the history of the morgue and its employees, and also learn about what is happening behind the walls of a gloomy institution called "the place of final registration of citizens."

Paris Morgue. paris morgue

Until the 19th century, extraordinary fun was popular among the inhabitants of Paris: looking at corpses. Unprecedented entertainment was made possible thanks to a building called morgue, where the authorities put on display lifeless bodies attached to marble slabs.

The original purpose of the French mortuary was to identify corpses by local residents, because most of the "exhibits" are suicides, which were often found in the Seine. But lovers of bread and circuses did not react to such an innovation in the way that the authorities would like: the Parisians looked at the corpses as if they were some kind of forbidden work of art.

In 1706, Russia partially took advantage of the French experience, however, such institutions were not called the place of final registration of citizens at all, but anatomical theaters, which only novice and practicing doctors could get into. The first mortuaries in the modern sense appeared about a hundred years ago.

Dictionary interpretation

Many mistakenly believe that the morgue is such an assumption is absolutely wrong. Morgue is a neologism from French, and the place of final registration of citizens is a popular attempt to decipher the word. To verify this, we turn to modern explanatory dictionary. It says that the morgue is not a "place" at all, but a special institution for the storage, identification and autopsy of corpses.

Professionals with nerves of steel

Why young students medical schools choose a job in the morgue? After all, the daily contemplation of corpses mixed with an unpleasant smell can drive even the most seasoned and mentally stable person crazy. Both beginners and experienced morgue employees answer this question in different ways. Some are attracted by high wages, while others treat the human corpse as an ordinary biological material, therefore they treat such work calmly and coolly.

Below is a list of specialists who work with corpses every day and know firsthand what a mortuary is:

• Pathologist. Engaged in autopsy and analysis of biological material, clarifies the cause of death.
• Forensic expert. Determines the cause of death, which is criminal in nature.
• orderly. Cleans the premises, "looks after" the corpses.
• Medical registrar. Keeps records of the arrival of corpses.
• Make-up artist. With the help of make-up, it gives the face of the deceased a neat and "fresh" look.

What is a morgue from the inside, or how do doctors work?

As soon as the corpse enters the morgue, it is sent to a personal freezer, and when it comes to autopsy, to a dissecting table with an adjacent sink. First of all, the pathologist studies the medical history of the deceased and examines the skin.

Then the doctor proceeds to examine the body from the inside: he opens the stomach and breaks the chest with special tools. The pathologist takes out the internal organs for a thorough examination and analysis. After the procedure, the doctor puts the organs back into the abdominal cavity.

If the cause of death is not found, then the pathologist opens the skull of the deceased. In a special way, the scalp is removed and the cranial bone is sawn. The doctor takes out not only the brains, but also the eye sockets. Each organ is subjected to detailed inspection and study.

If the doctor determined the cause of death and/or took the necessary biological material for analysis, the abdominal cavity of the deceased is sutured, and the skull is darned. The orderlies wash and embalm the body.

Posthumous makeup

The pathologist does not leave an untouched place on the body of the deceased, so such consequences must be carefully masked. Make-up artists and orderlies put the finishing touches: the first give a natural shade to the face and do the hair, and the second change the deceased into new clothes and put them in the coffin.

Horrifying Facts

Despite the hardened nature of doctors and orderlies, there are moments in the morgue that will make even the most experienced specialist shudder.

For example, orderlies get used to the process of sewing up the body for a very long time. When the needle passes through the skin with a thin layer of fat, a characteristic creak is heard, similar to the sound from a horror movie.

Also in medical practice, there is a common case when the deceased, in the literal sense of the word, begins to "breathe": at one moment, excess air suddenly comes out of the lungs of the corpse. Experienced doctors are used to such a spectacle, but beginners have a hard time.

About the feelings of specialists

Surely everyone is interested to know what emotions and experiences the mortuary workers experience. Surprisingly, most of them are cheerful people with inner harmony. The life philosophy of pathologists is not based on the concept of "we will all be there", but is intertwined with the thought "how great it is to live."

About what diseases most often die of those people whose bodies end up in the morgue, how and why corpses are opened, why the removed brains cannot be stuffed back into the skull, and about others interesting things we talked with an employee of the Ulyanovsk morgue.

How do people get into the morgue?

I work not in the morgue itself, but in the department of pathological anatomy. This is a separate large department at the hospital. We have, as I understand it, two departments of pathology. This is in the regional hospital, the central city hospital, in the oncology dispensary. Pathologists work there. They are engaged not only in the autopsy of corpses, but also in making the final diagnosis. They, among other things, are engaged in histology - they study tissues. For example, they take a tumor and examine it.

If the cause of death is not clarified, then the body does not fall into pathology, but into a forensic medical examination. Patients get into pathology from a hospital or from a hospice.

We call the dead "the body".

Although the relatives of the deceased seem to be ready for their death, they still worry. I can’t say that in terms of tantrums it’s easier in our country than in the morgue or with forensic experts.
I've been working for a year now and I can't remember a case where people died because of a medical error. They are either seriously ill or with an emergency pathology. For example, when a blood clot from the lower limb enters the pulmonary artery. Everything, the person dies instantly. You won't be able to do anything.

Mostly elderly people come to us, over seventy or eighty years old.

I practically did not see representatives of funeral agencies in the morgue. People often do not know how to act in the event of the death of relatives, and the pathologist explains everything to them and advises where to go. Sometimes the dead are buried right in the morgue. There is a ritual hall with wreaths.

Who and how opens the corpses?

The mortuary is the name given to the largest room where corpses are opened. The bodies are stored in a special room - storage.

Corpses are opened by orderlies, and only then pathologists come. They are already looking at all the organs, weighing them. A biopsy is taken from each organ. Each biopsy is then examined in order to further exclude the presence of any pathology.

When, after a massive stroke, the skull is opened, you can’t stuff it back.

All organs are weighed, because there are certain norms. For example, with arterial hypertension, the mass of the heart increases. With cirrhosis of the liver, the mass of the liver and its size increase. The dimensions of all organs are also measured with a ruler. Organs are weighed in a bowl.

Then, in principle, everything must be put back and sewn up. But this is not always the case. They don't always return everything. This is how biological waste is created. For example, when the skull is opened after a massive stroke, you can’t stuff it back. You can't artificially create pressure in the skull later. So that the face of the corpse does not sink later, some rags can be sewn up.

Giving the deceased a "presentation" is carried out by orderlies. They wash the deceased, embalm him, dress him. Nurses are mostly women, 50-60 years old. As far as I know, they have all been working there for a long time. People get used to everything.

Living people scare me more than dead people.

When I came to the morgue for the first autopsy, I could not eat meat for a long time. It's scary to look at all this. Then you get used to it. Living people scare me more than dead people.

It is theoretically possible to catch some kind of infection from a dead person, but everyone strictly observes the technology. We have special ammo. No one will be allowed into the hall without overalls.

Who works in the morgue?

We have a staff of about ten people, mostly girls. There is one male doctor, and there was a male orderly, but he was fired for drunkenness. He came to work a maximum of twice a month, for which he was fired.

There are days when no one dies.

The pathologist is considered one of the most difficult medical professions. He must know absolutely everything. An improved version of the therapist. But only the therapist as a distributor. And the pathologist is the most responsible profession, he cannot make mistakes, because he makes the final diagnosis. He must know everything.

There are interesting cases. For example, the law of paired cases. Several times I saw how two completely strangers to each other - of different ages, lying in different departments, enter the morgue. So it turns out that the openings take place in parallel. The bodies are opened and the doctors discover the same pathologies. I personally saw how two people who did not know each other found the same size aneurysms in the same places in the heart. As the doctors told me, this is a fairly common occurrence.

Working in the morgue didn't make me superstitious. There is no folklore in the morgue, there are legends about a black corpse. We call the dead "the body". I didn’t notice my own slang in the morgue.

Not as many people die as it seems.

During the autopsy, the orderlies calmly chat among themselves about children, grandchildren, about distant things. Cooks, when they make pies, do not talk about pies among themselves.

There are, of course, cases that are shocking. The young man died of a stroke. He had very large kidneys. In a healthy person, a kidney weighs 150-200 grams. He each had a kilogram each. He had a stroke and developed due to high blood pressure, renal hypertension. It could also be a congenital pathology, but it was known that during his lifetime he actively consumed energy drinks and alcohol. Didn't care about the body. He was brought with a stroke from work to the hospital, and he died almost immediately.

What do people most often die from?

They die most often from a stroke. The three most common pathologies are strokes, heart attacks and oncology. They say that before there was less oncology, but, probably, simply because they were diagnosed worse.

Not as many people die as it seems. On average, 3-5 people come to us per day. There are days when no one dies.

Photo courtesy of the Archeology of Russian Death magazine. The photographs show one of the Moscow hospitals.