Dead....and for a while!

Walked into the house and the aroma hit me straight away.

Had been advised to make sure you try and breathe through your mouth at all times, but this seems really bad advice, as can now taste it and we left the scene hours ago!

I have drunk gallons of tea to try and rid me of the odour and finally just about there.

Pleased that even though our uniforms are green, standing next to the Police Officer who attended to take over from us at the scene, I looked a lot less nauseous than him!

He looked particularly ill on enquiring if it was blood coming out of the mouth, my crew mate launched into a full and graphic explanation of the decomposition process and how various body fluids will leak out of the various orifices, which is what he was seeing.

I have to say, I would not want my family to see me after a few days into the afterlife, the pooling which goes on in the body (where the blood pools to the lowest points due to gravity) does not tend to make for a pleasant sight.

It was lucky he was discovered by the care home manager and we had the opportunity to manage the families exposure to the corpse to minimise any unnecessary distress.