Could you handle doing a trauma scene clean up?

View the video here on your mobile device.

Narrator: A tragedy occurs, the police finish their investigation and now all that’s left is the emotional impact on the victim’s families and the tangible mess the event has left behind.  No family wants to be responsible for cleaning up after a loved one’s demise. That difficult task is better suited for a company like Trauma Scene Clean Up. ILSTV asked Claude Bartholomew, owner of the Victoria, BC branch of Trauma Scene Clean Up,  exactly what type of work they do, and what kind of person it takes to do it.

Claude Bartholomew: First of all, you have to be willing to expose yourself to it. It’s not the type of position where we’re gonna do a clean up as you would someone’s house. We’re cleaning up not just the physical but some of the psychological fallout from that incident. So the individual needs to be aware of that before.

Some of the things we would deal with is post-accident. In the event there was a serious accident  but the vehicle can be fixed, then we would go in and assess if there is blood in the vents? What has to happen? Do things need to be taken apart? Is there any infectious disease? That would be one area.

Another one would be hoarding. Someone has passed away and their estate needs to be catalogued, and they haven’t been to the basement in 30 years. Or they’ve just purchased things and left them in the house where there’s just enough space for an individual to walk through the house. So we would deal with that.

We also deal with the drug paraphernalia; needles left in high-traffic areas or not so high-traffic areas. And things that come up. Someone has a bleed and it’s in the bathroom of a gas station, and they find out that Hep C or Hep B is an issue then we would come in because we are all suited up and have the cleaning products to deal with it.

Narrator: It is not a job for the faint of heart as often the trauma scene is a gruesome reminder of our fragile and tenuous existence.

Claude Bartholomew: One of our first jobs on the island involved a natural death, someone passed on. It involved pets and multiple weeks of no contact with people or neighbors or anything, so you can draw the conclusion to how that looked and smelled.

Narrator: With his masters degree in social work, and a background in palliative and Emergency Room care, Claude understands the importance of closure, not only for himself, but for distraught family members as well.

Claude Bartholomew: The more information I have before I go on site, the more I can prepare. For instance, in emergency services, how I’d have closure is I’d always have to see how the person lived. So for me to have a closure at each scene I’d have to see a person’s face. Were they distressed? Were they very relaxed? How did they exit the world? And that would give me closure at an emergency scene.

With this, what I find is the more information I have I can sort of prepare. Am I going to be dealing with stressed family members, or are there no family members? Or am I dealing with just professionals; the insurance company and the lawyer. So it’s a different approach.

Print