Disaster Bags

Disaster bags, otherwise known as “disaster pouches” and “water recovery body bags” are a real conversation starter for your next family dinner. Not to be confused with that overnight bag your weird friend has packed up in the back of their closet for the eventual WWIII, a disaster bag in mortuary terms is something useful but also dreaded.

For the sake of facts, I’ve enlisted the help of Aftermath: Specialists in Trauma Cleaning and Biohazard Removal (whose magnet is on my kitchen fridge, just in case) to break down this swift overview of decomposition. And hey, you should know what your body is eventually going to do without you, right?

Ok. You’ve heard of rigor mortis when the body stiffens, but what you probably didn’t know is that the cells essentially rupture and eat themselves, starting with the internal organs. These cells emit enzymes that, after about 12 hours, build up some serious gases that make the body bloat like a fleshy balloon. That is where the infamous smell comes from.

It’s called putrefaction, and it is unlike any other smell in the world. When people remark, “Wow, that garbage smells like death!” they couldn’t be farther off the mark. Nothing smells like death besides death. I mean, it sticks to clothes, shoes, money, walls even; it gets into your throat and hangs out there. You can smell it on your tongue.

But what happens after the Great Bloat? Well, you ever wonder how a flesh-and-blood body becomes a skeleton? The skin doesn’t just vanish, you know… Everything liquefies.

Cue the disaster bag! *and the flashing lights as a disco ball descends from the ceiling*

The body bag looks like a thin sleeping bag you probably took to your friend’s house on a Saturday night when you were like, eight. It’s usually opaque (to keep the contents a fun little secret), tall enough and wide enough for your average cadaver, and fortified with a zipper and handles for optimal efficiency. Sole purpose: to contain the body that is rapidly decomposing and turning to soup, so no one has to accidentally stick their hand into something that might scar them for a decade. It’s also meant to help contain the smell, but that’s a far reach. Granted, most funeral homes do not need to use disaster pouches often since most bodies are quickly embalmed, buried, or cremated. It’s rare to have someone hanging around for more than several days. But it does happen.

Generally, these bags are used in body recovery after a trauma, a crime, or during epidemics. Maybe that’s what the disaster is referring to? Or perhaps it has dual meanings. When someone’s skin is dripping off, that’s definitely a disaster, but then again, so is Ebola.

So yeah. Wow, what a trip. Thanks for hanging in there, and I’m sorry if you’re no longer hungry. It was for the sake of, uh, education. Right?