Blood cleanup must be done by professionally trained blood cleanup personnel in order to protect current and future inhabitants of a property as well as to ensure the safety of those cleaning blood scenes.
The experts at Advanced Bio Treatment are certified, knowledgeable and use the latest technology to decontaminate and remediate your property so that no evidence remains behind. We pride ourselves on not only restoring your home, but also your peace of mind.
Working in and around Washington D.C. including Baltimore, MD, we are often reminded that the freedoms we enjoy were not won cheaply. Our men and women of the armed forces make sacrifices daily to ensure that the rest of us are safe.
Many times, once a soldier has returned home, the hard work of becoming a regular person again, away from the horrors and stress of war, can prove to be as difficult as the deployment. Sometimes the struggle to forget the terrible sights and sounds that come with living in an active combat zone can be overwhelming, and in an effort to escape from the torment in their mind, some servicemen see no other way out but through suicide.
On the drive out to one such call, we passed various monuments, the type found all over the northeast, that have been erected to memorialize important people or deeds. Since the end of major combat operations in Iraq, we have seen a drastic rise in the number of servicemen who end their lives because of the mental trauma suffered and I couldn’t help but think that if mental scars were as visible as the physical that perhaps some of these cases could be avoided.
We pulled up to a small home in a middle class neighborhood, still marked by yellow crime scene tape, and immediately we were greeted by the homeowner, an stooped, tiny man in his 80s, who repeatedly thanked us for coming quickly to his aid.
He explained that a nice detective had taken pity on him by giving him our number, after the deceased victim living in the rental was found dead from a single gunshot wound to his head. He went on to say that the victim had been a young marine who had been renting the home while he was undergoing extensive physical therapy at the local VA, in an attempt to learn to walk again after a roadside bomb had detonated underneath the Humvee he and 4 platoon brothers had been riding in, killing the others and costing our victim his legs as well as his independence.
But the poor young veteran, only 27 years old, had suffered another grave injury that day, that went untreated… PTSD and an overwhelming sense of grief layered with intense guilt, over having survived when his brothers had fallen. It would prove to be a mortal wound.
Standing in the marine’s bedroom, I stared down at the aftermath of the soldier’s solution to his damaged life… he had taken his father’s pistol, the one he had received on his return home because his father had died while he was deployed, shined the buttons on his dress jacket, polished his shoes, made his bed, carefully placed a final note on it, then put the cold, silver barrel against his temple, as though he were saluting, and pulled the trigger.
Blood covered the floor and dripped down the walls from the brain splatter which had been projected by the force of the shot. A large pink blob caught my attention from the corner of my eye, and turning, discovered it was a sizable portion of the man’s brain which had fallen halfway behind a dresser.
Cases like this one underscores the need for trained experts to perform the proper cleanup procedures. ABT are trained professionals who have the equipment and knowledge to handle any incident involving biohazardous material. Blood, urine, feces and other bodily fluids contain pathogens which can be dangerous. Combine that with string chemical cleaning agents and these scenes can pose a significant health risk suited for experts like ABT who are certified by the EPA and OSHA.
We will handle everything from removing furniture to working with your insurance company. No family member or loved one should have to face cleaning up after an accident or tragedy… It can be daunting not to mention disturbing to the untrained mind. We will do our best to make it just a distant memory.
I couldn’t shake a feeling of despair as we disinfected and cleaned the room, removing any trace of the tragic event. Suicides are always hard, but when it involves servicemen it’s even worse. He had fought for his life and the lives of his fellow marines four separate times in Iraq only to give up the fight here in this room. It seemed so senseless, like the war itself, which even though it ended, our men and women of the armed forces still must live with the scars, mental and physical, here at home.
The cleanup involved mostly blood removal, and in this case, that meant that we had to tear out the carpet and carefully clean away the blood that had collected on top of the sub flooring, before replacing the old, blood soaked carpet, meticulously wrapped to avoid cross contamination on its way to medical waste disposal, with brand new carpet.
Next, we took care of cleaning away any brain matter or blood clumps that had adhered to the walls and ceilings, as well as any furniture that could be saved. Once the large chunks were gone, like the chunks of brain and skull which hung from the ceiling fan like rock formations in a cave, we moved on to our deep cleaning, sanitation process, which included replacing drywall which had been saturated with blood and could not be saved.
Finally, we painted the walls, ran a vacuum around the room, and called it a day. My job is tough, but I am always reminded how tough, and important, their jobs can be. You never want to see that hard work and courage rewarded with death and misery. I still say prayers for that young man. I salute all the men and women who serve our country… your bravery is never forgotten.
If you need scene clean-up and decontamination guidance, have questions about your payment options, which clean up and decon procedures your current insurance policy covers or require our scene cleanup services immediately, don’t hesitate to give Advanced Bio Treatment a call at:800-295-1684
