The Smell of Death?!

Oh my friends Emergency Service agencies get so many different calls for help that I think the general public would be really surprised but on occasion we are surprised as well. This was the case when we were dispatched to, " The Smell of Death."

Bob my awesome partner and I gave each other that, " what the hell?" look. REMCS was the name of our dispatch center.( The heartbeat of Newark EMS.) " 105 to REMCS did you just say, " The smell of death?" (105 was the unit number of our ambulance.)

It was impossible for any of us to keep the laughter contained. Bob tried really hard to keep back the guffaw that he had in his mouth but was unsuccessful. Well, once he started to laugh I couldn't stop myself. and our dispatcher, Ann, also was having trouble keeping it together. She choked on every word, " Yes 105 Newark PD is stating that they can smell death but they can't find it." There wasn't one ambulance or Paramedic Unit that could keep it together after that. " Hey! do you guys have the cadaver dog today?" " If it smells like death doesn't it means it's someone else's problem?" " Do the Police expect 105 to bring death back to life? They know we can't do that, right?"

This went on for about a minute. We don't get to laugh often and doing over the radio is almost a crime. The FCC really frowns on frivolous conversation. The REMCS Chief couldn't hold his 0wn emotions in check very well but he said, " that's enough people but he couldn't resist adding his own comment, " 105 of you do find death take a picture of it for future reference for the rest of us."

I should probably explain that since Bob and I had nicknames. He was Captain Chaos and I was Madame Mayhem. This was because every weird ass thing that could possibly happen always seemed to happen to us. It didn't even have to be a crazy dispatch but the minute we showed up it could be a complete circus. We were well loved, thank God, which meant that if a dispatch had any kind of suspicious tone to it another unit would usually come along to back us up. We were alone on this one, but what harm could the smell of death actually do? I mean, anyone who has ever smelled death knows it has a very distinct odor. How hard could it be to find whatever was causing it?

Please let me take a moment to make myself perfectly clear before I go on. Those of us who choose to work in services for the public do so because we want to , we intend to help you in any way we can. We count on you to help us as well. We need you to tell us what has happened to lead up to this emergency to the best of your ability. We work hard to bring about the best possible outcome not only for the person or persons in need but for the family and friends who are also dealing with extreme stress. We are also here to offer comfort if the outcome isn't what we'd hoped for. We are able to get you in touch with grief counselors, social workers or shelter. I want you to know, most of all that not everything is a joke to us, as a matter of we carry some of our calls around with us for the rest of our lives. We are only human.

Now, on with " The smell of death." Bob and I had composed ourselves as we arrived at our location. We had both assumed we were going to a residence of apartment complex but we ended up at dirt lot that contained several large black garbage bags some of them had healthy families of maggots making themselves at home.

We also found two bewildered looking officers. We greeted them and asked what we could do for them.

" Can't you smell that?!", came from the senior officer.

" It smells like there's someone dead in those bags." from the rookie.

Bob and I were perfect partners because we each had different strengths. We didn't have to speak to each other to know who should handle what. This one was going to be all me. I put my best politically correct voice on trying to be respectful. This situation didn't even warrant a call to EMS but I did my best to help.

" Well, officers, we most certainly agree that this area certainly has a very strong smell of death. The vermin on the bags also would indicate, to us, that something is dead in those bags. Now, what can we do for you? You know as well as we do that once something is so dead and in decay it's no longer in our wheelhouse. This would be a case for the medical examiner, wouldn't it?"

I didn't expect an argument to break out but expect the unexpected.

" But we don't even know what's in those bags, shouldn't one of you open them?" said the Rookie.

I think to say that Bob and I were incredulous at this complete lack of understanding of this scene on the part of the police was an understatement.

Bob looks at the senior officer and says, " Not only are we not going to touch the bags. We are not going to contaminate what could be a crime scene. We'll be leaving now." We turned to go back to the truck when the senior officer starts yelling at us.

" You just can't leave! What if there's something alive in there?"

Me: Sir, if you suspected there was a life to to be saved in one of these 30 bags shouldn't you have already opened these bags and started taking life support messages before we got here?"

Senior Officer: No! now open the bags!"

Well, now that he was starting to yell at me and order us to wade through and open the maggot covered trash bags that smelled like death that wasn't going to happen. Bob was already on the radio asking for our field chief to come to our location. I was in a scowling contest with the officer who kept yelling at me. He insisted that he could have us arrested for obstructing justice.. WOW! I was now pissed off.

" Hey! try to get this through your head if you can. 1) We don't work for you. 2) We don't take orders from you. 3) Should we happen to touch any of those bags we would be contaminating a potential crime scene. 4) I know you think you are in charge here but are you new here or what? My partner and I will be waiting in the ambulance for our Chief. I suggest you get your supervisor out here as well and while you're at it PLEASE ask him to bring one of your textbooks out here that cover this kind of incident."

Senior Officer: " You are a Bitch!"

Me: " No, I'm not but think what you like, Bye now."

Bob was walking me toward the ambulance still fighting the urge to laugh at this whole mess. I was fighting the urge to flip that guy off but I remained professional and just waited for our Chief.

This should have been a very simple scene. We were called out for " The smell of death." We confirmed that we smelled death. Job done, see you on the next one but of course it turned into chaos and mayhem for no apparent reason.

Once we were back in the truck waiting for the Chief she asked us to switch to channel 5 on our radio. Channel 5 was a tactical channel used for situations when units need to relay information back and forth to each other while not disturbing the primary dispatch channel. This also, of course, gives all of the other units in the field the opportunity to hear what's unfolding.

" 105, What's going on? Did you find death?" Chief Diane. She just couldn't help herself. Bob explained to her what had been taking place. I think she probably heard me say, " jerk and idiot" while Bob was speaking.

Chief Diane and The Patrol Supervisor arrived around the same time.

Diane looked at the bags and asked what exactly they expected us to do? The Senior jerk, uh.. officer, started babbling the same stupid crap at her that he had babbled at us about someone possibly still being alive in there. Chief Diane was really smart. She addressed the Patrol Supervisor how long his officers had been on this scene before Bob and I had arrived. He found that these officers had been there for almost 30 minutes before they even called for us.

That was the nail in the coffin, no pun intended.

Chief Diane to Patrol Supervisor: " so what we have here is obvious death but these officers also suspected that this could have also been a rescue scenario of some sort, which it took half an hour for them to decide, yet when my EMT's arrived they were expected to contaminate what they believed to be a crime scene just in case someone or something was alive in there? Did I get that right?"

Senior officer was still under the impression that we worked for him. He told Diane that we disobeyed a direct order. Diane ignored him.

The Patrol Supervisor started to look really embarrassed and annoyed. He directed his next remarks to Chief Diane, Bod and myself.

" I'm sorry we wasted so much of your time. I know how busy you guys are and that you work your asses off. I don't know what they were thinking. I'll get the medical examiner out here." He then spoke directly to me.

" Miss, I'll make sure they go through that textbook so this won't happen again."

It was my turn to look embarrassed. I started to apologize but he stopped me. " I would have been pissed off too."

We waited around for a few minutes as the officers started to open the maggot covered bags. The bags were filled with dead chickens and one dead goat..

There were a lot of , what we called, VooDoo houses in this section of the city. Chickens and goats were used as ritual sacrifices.

This, as gross as I found it to be, was legal due to the freedom of religion that we all enjoy in the United States.

Chief Diane, just looked at us and shook her head, " only you 2."

" 105 available, no service needed. Ready for the next one!"