Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Decontamination
line/equipment
for
Determine:
•
•
•
Holding and Temporary Morgues.
If law enforcement is needed to help
identify evidence.
Refrigerated trucks for temporary storage/
transportation.
•
If ME/C needs to perform additional
procedures as part of the external eval-
uation (e.g., chemical agent body swab,
clothing samples).
•
Ventilation fans.
•
Storage containers for personal effects.
•
Tents/structure to keep remains from public
view.
•
•
Obtain:
•
Embalming station to include final rinse
station (based on incident specific deci-
sion).
•
Refrigeration
storage
units/vehicles
based on situation.
•
Bulk storage for personal effects (e.g.,
55-gallon drums).
Additional remains pouches and duct tape.
•
Additional evidence collection containers
(e.g., new paint cans).
•
•
New/unused
paint
cans
to
store
evidence.
•
Establish area to perform decontamination.
•
Water and bleach/detergents for decon
(Figure E.2).
•
Can incorporate detailed decon and
monitoring remains to verify clean.
•
Mitigate contaminated water run-off.
•
Use double remains pouches—first
sealed with duct tape.
3.
Transportation and Storage.
•
Obtain refrigerated vehicles (e.g., trucks or
railroad cars).
•
Do not stack remains (use shelving
units).
•
Do not place remains higher than waist
level of handlers.
•
Use of available storage facility in accor-
dance with established plan.
4.
Morgue Operations.
•
Remains Processing
1.
Recovery.
•
Determine who will perform the recovery
of remains.
•
Determine and assign team leaders and
members as per plan.
•
Assign tasks to each agency assisting in
the recovery.
•
Determine what order personnel will
enter scene to perform tasks, between
the ME/C and Law Enforcement.
•
Use waterproof durable tracking/triage
tag for remains and personal effects.
•
Triage remains—autopsy or external exam-
ination.
•
Take photographs of remains (i.e., where
they were found) to facilitate identification
and evidence collection.
•
Consider establishing temporary cold
storage if the holding morgue is not able to
process remains quickly.
2.
Holding Morgue.
•
Determine if all morgue operations can be
centralized in one location or if it must be
decentralized into several smaller locations.
Establish morgue flow.
•
•
Perform detailed decontamination and
monitoring if remains are not previously
verified clean.
Establish private area at the incident site to
perform.
•
•
Perform autopsy on designated remains.
Evidence collection.
Perform external examination on all
remains.
•
•
Initial external evaluation.
•
Initial ID check.
•
Perform identification procedures.
Removal and tagging of personal
effects—separate into durable and non-
durable items.
•
If embalming remains, perform final
rinse after embalming procedures.
•
