Nobody is truly prepared for death, regardless of the brave front or words. It’s usually a difficult event to handle, even when you’re aware it’s coming. But it’s worse when a loved one has an unattended death and strangers have to come into such a private moment and ask questions.
You will have so many questions if you didn’t see it coming but having to clean up after such a death is more than any loved one can handle. Thankfully, you don’t have to handle that part at all. There are discreet crime scene cleanup services who send out professionals for a thorough cleaning job. You will find many such services all over the country but you must also know how to hire the right one.
Before that, there are few pitfalls that families and loved ones of victims must avoid if they plan to continue using that house or property where the death occurred. So, here are a few to keep in mind to ensure you get the best results.
- Don’t Clean the House Yourself
It goes without saying that the trauma of having a loved one in an unattended death is terrible. No one wants to be close to that place; there should be steps to initiate the healing process and hanging around the crime scene is not one of them. However, some people find that cleaning the property is part of the coping mechanism.
As tempting as cleaning the house sounds for someone who loves cleaning as part of coping, it shouldn’t be done. Apart from the trauma it causes, it takes a professional with the right cleaning agents and equipment to remove the stain and stench, especially if you want to keep using that house in the future.
Such death scenes are pretty difficult to clean. Porous surfaces require a depth and cleaning skill that a typical DIY method cannot provide. So, let an unattended death cleanup service do a thorough job and you can give it a once-over afterward.
- Don’t Try to Sanitize or Deodorize
After cleaning, the logical next step is to sanitize properly and deodorize so that any leftover stench will be eliminated. Even if you succeed in cleaning the scene yourself, you will still need special solvents and deodorizers to remove all the smells that come with an unattended death.
There’s a reason it is called an unattended death: it means the body is not discovered for some time after death, maybe days, weeks or months. By then, the body fluids and blood would have leaked from the body and stained the areas surrounding the corpse. Blood and such fluids are some of the hardest stains to remove and they smell a lot.
So, your regular sanitizer and deodorizer won’t cut it. You need more powerful, hospital-grade products to do an excellent job. It doesn’t end there; there is a skill that makes the products more effective than usual. You can find out how to easily deodorize a room here.
- Don’t Overlook the Importance of Recommendations
As mentioned, there are steps to take to ensure you hire the right unattended death cleanup service and one of them is asking for recommendations. This is not a path you’ve traveled before but there are those who have. You may be surprised to learn that someone close to you – at work or in the neighborhood perhaps – has had to deal with such situations in the past.
Opening up and asking for help in this regard will go a long way in providing a list of the most suitable services to hire. Apart from those closest to you, ask lawyers and law enforcement personnel for recommendations.
You can also reach out to medical personnel because they always know who will provide the best services. Remember to check the recommended companies online to see their credentials, experience, areas of expertise, and reviews. You want to ensure you get the best for the job.
4. Don’t Neglect the Required Support
No one has to go through grief and trauma alone. It helps somewhat when there’s a support system to help you through the period when you’re trying to understand what has happened. It might feel like something you can do alone but that’s not usually the case.
Grief of such magnitude takes a massive toll on the mind and generally affects mental health; some people never recover. What you do in the days and weeks immediately after the discovery of the crime scene can make or mar your health in the future. Therefore, ensure you always have someone around you and try to talk about what happened.
The more you talk about how you feel, the lighter the load becomes. If you’re comfortable with it, engage the services of a therapist or psychologist to navigate the difficult waters. Be honest about how you feel because it’s one of the first steps toward recovery and healing. In other words, bottling up your grief will only affect your health in the long run. To learn more about mental health support during grief, follow this resource: https://www.mhanational.org/
Conclusion
Handling an Unattended Death Cleanup is a difficult process if you try to do it alone. But with the help of loved ones and proper mental support, you can successfully navigate the waters and ensure you can use the property again, among other things. Never try to clean the scene yourself because household cleaning agents are not enough. The same is true about sanitizing and deodorizing. Always get professional help for the best results.
