“The flies are the worst.” What is the job of cleaning companies after deaths? [BOOK FRAGMENT]

«This man’s apartment was so tight that people felt something there, but they didn’t know what. Since the bills were not paid, the flat was bought by debt collectors. The tenant did not appear on the summons for payment, but no one came up with the idea of ​​going to him and checking what was happening. The police, a bailiff and a new owner came. They opened the door, and the body is decomposed there ». How does cleaning companies work in the homes of deceased people? We learn this from the book Everything You Need to Know Before You Die. Secrets of the funeral industry ». Here is a fragment of it.

1. Example: a man lay dead in his apartment for six months. We took four full XNUMX-liter buckets of flies out of this apartment. There would be nothing so terrible about it, if it were not for the fact that the flies started to enter other apartments through the ventilation grills – recalls Mateusz Węgorowski
2. Together with his wife, 11 years ago, he founded Bio-Clean, a company cleaning the apartments of the dead
3. When a person dies at home, simple cleaning is not enough. A professional cleaning company is needed. It happens that it is even necessary to hammer the walls and tear off the floor
4. «Before we start pointing the fingers at the people who are cleaning up dead bodies, it is worth asking ourselves why we so rarely speak to our loved ones. I think that if some people cared more about their parents, grandparents, our work would simply not exist. How can Poles talk about deaths if they do not respect the living? » – he says in an interview with Małgorzata Węglarz
5. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

“Everyone approaches, kisses the deceased three or four days after death, yet decomposition begins right away”

Małgorzata Węglarz: I came across your company because you publish photos, the effect before and after. The web was boiling.

Mateusz Węgorowski: One person made a buzz and that’s where it started. We have nothing to hide, this is our job and we wanted to show its effects. It’s a common thing on the American sites, the photos are much more drastic. In turn, German companies go a step further, sometimes you can even see the body in the photo. Nobody makes a problem out of it, but Poles react differently. Other Polish companies also show the effect before and after, but we got hit by it, because we are the most media-oriented.

Iwona Węgorowska: This is life itself. People disgust it, but that’s what it looks like.

MW: Nobody has to come to our site. However, we believe that our clients should know with whom and what they are dealing with. The situations are different, you know, these are not pleasant views, but clients can see what the effect is before and after, what work needs to be done. Of course, this confronts death, and nobody likes it.

Grzegorz Węgorowski: I think our society is very hypocritical. Lots of people play games where bodies literally explode. The games are getting more and more realistic. But when such a man sees a reality that can be really brutal, he says, “Fe! How ugly! ”. Communities can be very parochial. Big city – aware people. Eastern wall – much worse. We don’t have clients there, I think it’s because of this unawareness. People cannot understand that what happens to the human body after death can be harmful.

IW: In villages it happens to this day that a corpse lies in a coffin for several days. I remember the funeral of my grandfather and grandmother, coffins on the table, everyone comes up and kisses the deceased three or four days after death, and yet decomposition begins right away. Of course, you can put ice on your body, but in the middle of summer it doesn’t do much anyway. Then they take the coffin, we go to the cemetery, and when we come back, a funeral has been prepared on these tables … People think: “What can the deceased do to me?” Nothing in the deceased, but his body – quite a lot.

The rest of the text is below the video.

Where does this approach come from?

G.W.: In my opinion, it is due to the lack of education, lack of information, and the fact that Poles have only recently opened up to the world. Most Poles are typical Jan Kowalski – he has not been anywhere, he has not seen anything, but he knows everything. The world looks at us in a stereotypical way.

MW: We encounter it every day: people clean up after deaths on their own. And I’m not talking about a situation where someone died and was immediately taken to a funeral home. We are talking about a death spent a month or two, full of blood and body fluids. After all, domestos is enough, because it’s a shame to spend money on doing it properly and safely.

1. Change to soap, squeaks and excretions. What happens to us after we die?

«The flies are the worst. One is enough for the whole herd to come out in no time »

Ordinary cleaning agents are not enough to clean up after death?

G.W.: Absolutely not. This is a very superficial cleaning. We immediately know that someone has hired a traditional cleaning crew. I pick up the phone: “What are we supposed to do, because people were there, they were cleaning, and it still stinks.” It stinks, because the honorable deceased is still under the floor, that is, his blood, decomposed fragments of the body penetrated much deeper into the floor. I always hear complete surprise. That is why you need to hire a professional company that will break parquet and concrete. He will decontaminate it properly. And here it begins: “But those are the costs!” Are. Well, but something for something.

MW: Poles do not realize that it is simply dangerous. We always alert the client not to enter the apartment where the death occurred, without masks, overalls, without protection. It is very important. All these microorganisms, bacteria, all of this are alive and have a negative impact on human health. Most often, however, we are called by middle-aged and older people who are aware of what needs to be done. That is why we emphasize on our website, in the media and in every interview that it must be approached professionally.

IW: The flies are the worst. One is enough for the whole herd to fall out. And they can fly from miles away when they sense a body. Such a fly [blower fly – ed. aut.] lays eggs in all holes in the body. (…)

Are there things when you know it will be really hard?

IW: Time is enough. When they tell us how much someone has been lying, we already know that we need to prepare for a difficult sight.

MW: For me, it tells me where the body was. It was different when she was lying on the bed and different when she was lying on the floor. The floor is more difficult because we know that it has to be torn off and the screed has to be chained. We need to do more work than normal. Recently, we had to carve the bottom of the wall, because it was soaked with blood and fluids. If the body was lying on the mattress, there is already an effect after lifting it. And this is how we tear the floor off – feel, choke the spout – feel. Well, that’s when the nerves begin. We always manage it, it just takes more work.

G.W.: And expertise. You need to be able to locate the source of the contamination. Because it may be a small fragment that has not been noticed, and it is this fragment that causes a very large amount of unpleasant odor. It can be different with time. We had a gentleman who spent a year sitting dead in the chair. There was no smell at all. Airtight apartment, small, poor air access. The Lord mummified himself.

MW: Or the case from Kalisz. Nobody discovered the body for two years. The deceased had a lot of materials, he was a tailor. The rags swallowed it all up. We walked in surprised, why not feel anything? Apart from the mustiness from the moldy clothes, there was no smell of decay.

G.W.: Diseases are another thing. A healthy person decomposes longer, a sick person – very quickly. What is in it accelerates decay. So there is no rule. We always know it won’t be colorful. (…)

We took four full XNUMX-liter buckets of flies out of this apartment

Do you sometimes improve after unprofessional companies?

IW: We know a company after which we always know that it will be necessary to improve. I will not say what kind of company it is, because competition is not badly spoken of. But if we receive the thirtieth phone call from a client that there was supposed to be company X and did not come, then the conclusion is obvious.

G.W.: Some companies don’t break the floor. Or they paint over the walls. In this way, however, they mask the problem that will come to the surface anyway.

MW: If we had done everything for ten years, the fame would have gone. In addition, as the only company in Poland, we work with the National Institute of Hygiene, we have developed procedures, the only one in the country, for cleaning up after bodies in the event of murder, suicide, and so on. It describes step by step what you need to do.

IW: I am still surprised why such guidelines were not made mandatory. It is not regulated by law. And it should be. If the body was lying for two or three days, there should be an order to disinfect the apartment.

MW: Imagine a death in a block of flats, on the ground floor. This is a biohazard to all of the apartments above.

G.W.: Example: a man lay dead in his apartment for six months. We took four full XNUMX-liter buckets of flies out of this apartment. There would be nothing so terrible about it, if it were not for the fact that the flies started to enter through the ventilation grills into other apartments. Next to it there was a hairdresser and a small gastronomy. Hairdressers alerted that a whole bunch of flies had appeared. The man’s apartment was so tight that people felt something there, but they didn’t know what. Since the bills were not paid, the flat was bought by debt collectors. The tenant did not appear on the summons for payment, but no one came up with the idea of ​​going to him and checking what was happening. The police, a bailiff and a new owner came. They opened the door and the body decomposes there. The whole apartment was painted red, because flies carry blood and fluids. I believe that before we start pointing the fingers at people who are cleaning up after corpses, it is worth first looking at yourself and asking yourself why we speak so rarely to our loved ones. I think that if some of them cared more for their parents, grandparents, were interested in why they had not seen their neighbor for a long time, our work would simply not exist. How can Poles talk about deaths if they do not respect the living?

Excerpt from the book Everything You Need to Know Before You Die. Secrets of the funeral industry »Małgorzata Węglarz (MUZA SA Publishing House).