Secrets Of The Dead

Even though they can no longer talk, it’s amazing how much dead people can reveal to the expert eye. In his new book, specialist forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal takes readers into the mortuary and shares a few grim yet fascinating facts about death

- Ryan Blumenthal

Oh My word, you’re a forensic pathologist? Like in CSI? That must be so interesting! But don’t you get depressed?” This is a typical reaction I get when someone meets me for the first time and finds out what I do.

I never know how best to respond. Do I try to romanticise my job and play to their fantasies? Or do I tell them the cold, hard truth?

The questions don’t stop there. People usually hang around at the cocktail party or the braai, wanting all the curious details. The first question they usually ask is, “What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen?”

At this point I stop them and say, “I don’t find other people’s unnatural deaths interesting!” After all, each of the unnatural deaths I deal with represents a tragedy in someone’s life.

However, if you were to ask me what the most unusual or strangest thing is I’ve ever seen, I’d probably tell you the story of the giant rat.

One day, a body arrived at the mortuary. It was sealed in a metal coffin, which in turn was placed in a wooden coffin, fastened shut with steel screws. The inside of the metal coffin was filled with 100% formalin which meant we had to be very careful.

If we’d opened it indoors the formalin would volatilise and turn the space into a gas chamber, putting us at risk of dying of asphyxia. So, we took the coffin outdoors, removed the metal screws and poured the formalin into large metal drums for formal waste disposal.