[Markhamed]

I've been a long-time lurker here and I'm excited to finally be able to provide some exclusive content. It's not much, but it's what I could get without the coroner noticing me. I know a lot of people enjoy the backstory (I do, at least), so I'm providing it for the pleasure of those who appreciate it.

I'm sorry I couldn't get better pictures. If I got caught doing this I have no idea what kind of trouble I could get in and I don't want to find out. Anyway, it's better than nothing.

I'm an EMT. We were called Sunday night for an expiration. We get expirations every once in a while -- typically, someone who was not expected to die dies and someone just found the body. We're typically first on the scene. It can honestly be anything -- murder, suicide, etc., but usually it's a natural death. Can't really know until you get there.

They are miserable. They take a very long time, because you have to stay with the body until it's disposed of, and that usually means standing around awkwardly with grieving family members. That's always unfortunate.

My partner and I arrive on scene to find the gentleman's neighbor leaning out the door screaming her head off. She's crying and screaming inconsolably. My partner takes care of her while I go inside.

Since I can't ask her where the body is, I have to look around. I'm standing in a moderately-sized two bedroom apartment in a duplex. The front door opens into a living room, which connects to a small kitchen. To my right are two bedrooms, one with the light on and one with the light off. Directly in front of me is a bathroom, pictured below.

The first thing I see is the shit smeared everywhere. Black and tarry, indicative of a GI bleed. Strange that it's smeared everywhere though. I flip the light on in the second bedroom, it's just a messy office. The bedroom to the right of the front door contains the body.

As you can see below, he's lying on his back. A blanket covers his lower half (the neighbor did that) and he's got dried blood coming from his mouth and nose. He's cold, pale, and stiff. Dead at least eight hours.

That jives with the neighbor's story. He works six days a week, Saturday is his only day off. They share a duplex and are close friends. He leaves the front door cracked open for his (extremely cute and friendly) housecat,(who we had a helluva time getting out of the house) to come and go as he/she/it pleases (I don't know cat genders sue me).

She would usually say "good morning" to him before he left for work. This morning, the door was cracked open as always, and when she peered in she noticed his cellphone on the armchair and assumed he must be in the shower. (She was probably right -- we found his cellphone next to the armchair in the charger, so he must've moved it later).

We immediately called the coroner. Sometimes, primary care physicians will sign off on deaths if the patient had, for example, a severe heart condition. No chance here -- the shit everywhere was no sign of a problem and there was no indication from the neighbor that he was in particularly poor health.

According to her, the gentleman had received an endoscopy six days earlier for a possible pancreatic fistula. If that's the case, and this really IS a GI bleed, it could be a medical malpractice case. Definitely a coroner call.

An assistant coroner arrives a short time later. He's the very definition of a doddering old man. Because he's the only one here (no police or anything) he asks us to stay and witness the investigation, making sure he doesn't steal anything.

Aside from that, we need to figure out a next of kin and funeral home information -- things the neighbor cannot help us with. So, my partner and I get to start piecing together how the gentleman died.

It was really cool. I've never gotten to do that before. We're all wandering around the house playing detective. Now, at this moment, the death is not suspicious, so there's no police involvement necessary.

But we need to figure out where the body is going. That's the only reason I was able to get these pics -- my partner was outside questioning the neighbor while the coroner was on the phone in the kitchen.

We found all the paperwork for his endoscopy. Routine procedure. The doc identified the fistula. We find his medications which give us a PCP, which in turn yields next-of-kin information.

The coroner tracks down his daughter's address and has state police go out to do a death notification. We still need a funeral home. That's the next-of-kin's job, officially, but if he has arrangements we can get the ball rolling and maybe possibly get off the scene someday. By this time we've already been there over an hour.

Meanwhile, we figure out that the gentleman had breakfast (a ham and egg sandwich that he made in this really cool instant-sandwich-maker that still had shit all over it); took a shower (thank the neighbor for that one); and got dressed and ready for work.

He then shit his pants. He removed his pants, socks, and underwear in the living room (we found his soiled boxers, socks, and shoes there), took his pants into the bathroom, and caused the mess you see.

He then went into the bedroom and sat down on the bed (there's a shitstain there) to take his blood pressure (an automatic cuff was lying on the floor next to him). If I had to guess next, he became dizzy from blood loss and tripped over the laundry basket you see around his feet, fell, and died.

If there's an autopsy, it'll likely reveal a nick somewhere in the stomach, likely caused by the endoscopy. He'd probably been bleeding for several days since the procedure but it got significantly worse Saturday night into Sunday morning, and I'm guessing he woke up feeling very ill.

Blood would've been filling into his stomach for the past six days and being filtered into the colon, causing tarry stools. Perhaps something ruptured, like his bowel or stomach wall, causing additional bleeding, causing the blood to seep from his mouth and nose when he passed out. Can't really know any of that without an autopsy.

He was a nice guy, by all accounts. I feel kid of bad for him. He was 68.

I'll keep trying to get you what I can but I'm rarely left alone with the body. Hope you enjoyed!

[loosy]

Great post ...thankyou for your time doing it . Don't normally get such detailed posts from more affluent cultures

[Mt321]

Nice write up and thanks.

[lovelylucinda]

Great back story cheers

[Xploit Machine]

wat he's doing in the basket

[kellyhound]

First class post, thanks for sharing

[Oswald2001]

Great post and the back story is too.

But, if it were me, I would edit it as it would be pretty easy to identify you with the back story written as it is.

No point in you getting yourself in any trouble.

Great post though.

Thanks!

[Riddla]

Must have been in pain for days. I know i would have at least called the doctor if i was shitting out blood

[REVZZYBAN]

What a shame. 68 years old and was still working hard. I am curious to know if the bloody, tarry stools just suddenly developed or if he had symptoms for a few days prior to death. I'm no doctor but if I had those symptoms after an endoscopy, I would have sought immediate medical attention.

[HeyJealousy]

could this finally be some American (or first-world, i.e. British) gore? We need that kind of material. Thanks so much, OP. More EMTs need to follow suit and post original material because it gets tiring seeing the same old Indonesia, Brazil, yada yada, on here.