Question about the morgue ?

Question

So I have a huge fear of death and dead bodies but I've always wondered about the morgue. My aunt just passed away this morning at age 59 from a heart attack at 1 am and my grandmother and my aunts brothers went to see her body when she just died and when they left, they took her body to the morgue, so they just bring her to the morgue like that, or with a sheet over her and do they walk in a corridor with people walking or they have a private way ? Anyways, and what floor is the morgue usually on, is it accesible to everyone or you go a certain way. Anyways , just morgue questions ! I'm just always terrified that I'll see a dead body when I'm at the hospital. And I'm at the hospital every week now because I am pregnant.

Answer 1

I dont really know about the morgue.. but when my grandpa died i wanted to see him before they cremated him.. it was sad.. he had a heart attack in his yard.. and he fell and broke his nose and he fell into a pile of ants.. but he looked beautiful to me.. :) BTW sorry about your aunt..

Answer 2

Deceased people are unnerving to see but the are part of the circle of life and they are often wheeled around in hospital hallways.  Like many posters have already said, morgues are in the basements of hospitals - for protection (i.e. investigations, autopsy's, deaths due to crimes) and to be out of view of patients.

As far as you seeing bodies, have you ever seen a patient being wheeled in a bed through a hallway?  OK, in movies, when people pass away, sheets are usually pulled over their faces, right.  Well, in a hospital, when a patient has passed away in their room, for example, they need to be taken to the morgue - in the basement - fairly quickly.  They are wheeled through hallways just like normal living people are, complete with tubes and IV's...and there are no sheets covering their faces, so as not to alarm folks like you and me.  So what you see are either peolple recovering from procedures or people who have passed away.  They have to get these deceased folks down to the morgue (basement) somehow and there is never a "good time" to do this.  The "not covering their faces" is a way of not alarming folks.  And it works, right?  I hope this is making sense.  Similarly, if you've ever seen a hospital worker carrying an ice chest, it's likely containing an organ (heart or liver, for example) that is to be transplanted into another waiting patient.  This stuff has to happen somehow and they've found a way ot do it right under unsuspecting noses.  Pretty clever, huh?  There are other things in those ice chests, but no need to go there.  Suffice to say, you have nothing to fear and you will only ever see peaceful, resting, sleeping people being wheeled through hospital hallways.  Really, when you think of it like that, it's really not bad at all.

Please don't worry.....and bst of luck to you with your new baby!

Answer 3

The morgue was at the basement of our hospital...

I expect it is locked...and seldom used and the bodies are refrigerated on a gurney.

NO you wont see a dead body..unless there is an accident.

You might see cut and shoot at the ER...

Answer 4

Morgues are usually on the ground floor or basement, so that you can just back-up and unload.  It  helps to have a big parking lot, out of the back door, if you ever have to mass casulity (gives you room to park the refrigerated trucks).  When transported to the morgue, the bodies are covered in a shroud (which can be like an elastic throw blanket that fits over and under the edges of the stretcher), or a sheet, or in a zip-up body bag, and should always be treated with respect.

Usually the entrance the morgue is hidden from public view, or (at least) is in the "back" somewhere.  For those times when you have to "slip" a body past patients in a hospitial, there is a two-tier cart that is used; the body goes on the bottom, and a canvas cover goes over the top, so that it looks like a linen cart going down the hall.  

Hospitals do their VERY BEST to make sure you don't just "stumble" across a dead body.  If you ever do, trust me, it will be a suprise to everyone, and you see a great deal of running and clashing of crash carts!  The morgue is NEVER accesible to just anyone.  If you don't have business there, you don't belong there.  If unmaned, the door is ALWAYS locked!  Likely, in large morgue, there will be a small lobby and a maned counter; when you first walk in it will likely look like the DMV or the place where you pay your county taxes, with no hint of what is behind the door on the other side of the lobby.  However, the Los Angeles County Morgue does have a gift shop (check out their web site - the body outline beach towel is a hoot.)

There is more than one way to view a body.  Some places will use a video link, so that the viewing is done in a small room with a TV.  Other places will allow you to view the body behind a plate glass window from a viewing window.  Smaller morgues may have no choice but to let you view the body in person.

If you want to see a good movie that shows some of this from the "old days", watch "Panic In The Streets" (1950) with Richard Widmark; there are some great location shots taken inside the old New Orleans morgue.  For laughs, you might also want to watch the movie "Night Shift" (1982) with Henry Winkler.

Don't sweat it, they are just dead people, and are carefully hidden from the public view!

By the way, before H. Katrina, the phone prefix for the New Orleans morgue was 666, and the Coroner played a mean horn in a local band,

Good luck with your pregnancy!  L'chayim

Answer 5

don't afraid from dead bodies u know if u wanna afraid ,,,,afraid from alive man bec ,,,,,,alive man are more dangerous than dead,,,dead man is like soil ,u have no need to afraid ,,,,,,,,and do meditation ,,,

Answer 6

they have a back door entry usually ... they keep such things hidden.

most hospital has an indoor garage for such things ...

at my hospital the morgue is in the basement ... 1st basement to be exact ...

they rarely put a morgue on `essential ` floors.... since dead people do not need windows and , since the basement is often under used, they put it there.