This article comes from WeChat public number: Guyu Lab-Tencent News (ID: guyulab) , author: Zhu South soft, oral: Huang, Wuchang funeral home employees, from the title figure: Figure worm

Lao Huang (pseudonym) is a civilian in Wuchang Funeral Home, less than 40 years old. Under the weight of the epidemic, he was also on the front line to pick up and transport the remains.

The Wuhan Civil Affairs Bureau stipulates that of the three funeral homes in Wuhan, Hankou funeral home is responsible for receiving the remains of patients diagnosed with new crown pneumonia, while Wuchang funeral home and Qingshan funeral home are responsible for receiving other remains in the city, including those suspected to have died of new coronary pneumonia And the remains of ordinary deceased.

As a group that has received very little attention from society all the year round, today’s front-line practitioners in the funeral industry are just like other people on the epidemic front. They use their professionalism and sweat to comfort and warm those who are in sorrow, but they also face the danger of being exposed to the epidemic at any time due to shortage of protective materials.

Running and epidemic prevention keep them in high tension. At a critical juncture for everyone to fight the epidemic, Lao Huang hopes that his narrative will not be interpreted too much, but will allow more people to pay attention to their ongoing work and urgent needs to be resolved, and then provide some assistance.

Here is his dictation:

I started in this industry because I felt that this was an industry that would not be unemployed. I have been working for almost 10 years, and I am currently feeling the most exhausted period of time.

We are under great pressure now. We must pull the remains of ordinary deaths in Hankou and Wuchang. We must also pull the remains of suspected new coronary pneumonia. From the second day onwards, all staff in our pavilion must go to work without a break.

Years ago, the pressure was actually up. The superior leaders sent additional staff from Suizhou to support us, 1 car, 4 people. Our business, noIt may be possible to send someone outside to help. Others will not do this. They can only respond to the emergency in their own units, and they can also transfer people from some small cities around them.

Now all the male staff in our museum are responsible for hauling the remains, the girls are responsible for disinfection, the disinfection of the whole museum, and the disinfection of our returning staff. Now all the four telephones in the hall are being answered. The operators are on duty 24 hours a day, and they are exhausted. Our curator was on the line when he was 30 years old, and he didn’t go home.

Our people are totally unthinkable here. Come back out of the car, wash your hands terribly, disinfect yourself, and sit for a few minutes. There is no time for work. It is a round-the-clock operation. For example, I have to work from 7 am to 6 pm the next day. Our employees just lay back like this, sitting on the sofa waiting for the car, waiting for the next trip. It is always overnight at night, and you do n’t want to eat when you are tired.

Some of our employees dare not even drink water because they need to go to the toilet when they drink it. Protective clothing is impermeable and everyone is sweaty. Some of our employees are sick and working with sick bodies. A few people had some fever. The doctor suggested that they be isolated at home, but there was no way. The unit was too busy. They still had to come to help.

In our profession, we have already passed this level psychologically. Funeral home staff should be more psychologically able to withstand stress than the average person. But it is really sad to see these families and these remains.

All are older people who can’t go to the hospital and take medicine at home. Some older people have a basic illness that they can’t handle, and they suddenly die. So, family members, how to say, are all collapsed.

I pulled a body a few days ago. He entered the hospital from the beginning, and his family could not see anyone until his death. The last thing his family saw was the ashes. It’s sad to not see people. From his illness to his death, he was isolated in the hospital, and he could not see his family, nor could his family see him. The deceased was from ICU but was not diagnosed. The cause of death was severe pneumonia.

Staff are dealing with remains

The mourning ceremony is now cancelled. Only the remains and cremation will be delivered. After the epidemic is over, family members will come to collect the ashes. Fortunately, the family members still understood it. They could not see the body and there was no memorial service. The family members were quite cooperative. We went to each family’s house and they were very nice to us. They said that you worked hard. Thank you very much for coming to help with this funeral.

Family members are calling now. Our units are asking for a death certificate to explain how they died. If it is a suspected patient, we ask the family members to disinfect it first and spray 84 disinfection water at home. Some family members are more attentive and pack their bodies with sheets. If some family members dare not touch them, they just wait for us to pass, wrap them in a cover sheet, and then pack them away.

Now the funeral home will not allow family members to come. After the restrictions have been lifted, they can come over to go through the cremation procedure and get ashes. Everyone still understands this. We the people of Wuhan, for Wuhan, for the country, it is impossible to say who will make trouble.

We also need to wear protective clothing, gloves, masks and goggles when we go out to receive the remains. Even if you want to pick up ordinary corpses, you must protect them. Because some of the deceased died at home, we have to go to other people’s homes. If we only wear funeral work clothes, family members will not rest assured. Everyone will feel relieved when wearing protective clothing.

The problem now is that we are in short supply. An enterprise donated us hundreds of swimming glasses, which can also be used as goggles. But disinfection supplies, especially alcohol, as well as protective clothing, gloves, and masks are very scarce.

Every time we return to the museum after receiving the body, we spray the whole body with that disinfectant, and hang the protective clothing after spraying. If there are any remains to operate, we will put on this protective suit again. Each worker is repeatedly disinfected, disinfected, worn, disinfected, worn, and that’s it.

Funnel staff perform self-disinfection after lifting the remains

Picture 丨 Changjiang Daily reporter Chen Zhuo

Strictly speaking, protective clothing should be disposable. After each body is pulled back, it cannot be used again. But nowadays, it can only be disinfected. The glue of the protective clothing is disposable, and it won’t stick if it is torn. We can only tie the rope in order to wear it repeatedly.

Alcohol is not enough. We even used a water similar to 84. I can’t remember the name, but I don’t think it can really disinfect. That water hurts the skin very much. We have to spray this water on our face and hands. My hand has a fester like eczema.

Medical rubber gloves are also missing. We are now using disposable plastic gloves, the type that eats seafood, wear two layers and go.

In fact, after the accident in the South China Seafood Market at the beginning of the year, our museum has made preparations and purchased a batch of protective clothing and masks, including 84 disinfectant. But I didn’t expect … how much is used. At that time, we were required to wear masks and gloves, but we did not wear protective clothing. Until the second day of the new year, with the change of the epidemic, a large number of people became infected, and we did not wear protective clothing.

Hey, don’t write too much for us. When writing is very hard, the public will think a lot. Not too many people pay attention to us now, most of them are doctors, nurses, and hospitals. I saw the video on the Internet, the doctor was really hard, and it collapsed. In fact, our funeral employees also collapsed, really. I just hope that we can help us to appeal for it. There is too little supplies now to see if any caring people can help us funeral workers. As for the hard work, we know in our hearts.

Material donation information:

Wuchang Funeral Home

Address: No. 3 Chuping Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province

Contact: Chen Huan 13871482508

This article comes from WeChat public account: Guyu Lab-Tencent News (ID: guyulab) , author: Zhu South soft, oral: Huang, Wuchang funeral parlor staff