How are the bodies of diseased COVID-19 patients handled?

[Axtremus]

What’s the protocol there?
Are bodies of diseased COVID-19 patients considered a high risk vector? For how long?

[Jolly]

@Axtremus said in How are the bodies of diseased COVID-19 patients handled?:

What’s the protocol there?
Are bodies of diseased COVID-19 patients considered a high risk vector? For how long?

High risk. If doing an autopsy (and it would be easier to throw a cat in a bathtub than to get an average path to post a known COVID patient), the lungs or body fluids would be infectious. I assume as long as you have fluids, you have potential for disease transmittal.

If I was going to make a guess, I'd say that the nurses pull the tubes, disinfect everything as much as possible, bag the body in a leakproof bag and the family cremates the body ASAP.

[George K]

Slightly off-topic.

the nurses pull the tubes

I never understood the thinking behind that, other than for aesthetics should the family want to see the deceased - I imagine seeing a froth-filled endotracheal tube and an NG tube full of black-ish stuff would be jarring.

Can you think of another reason?

[Jolly]

I don't have a clue. That's just the way I've generally seen it done.

[Copper]

@George-K said in How are the bodies of diseased COVID-19 patients handled?:

I imagine seeing a froth-filled endotracheal tube and an NG tube full of black-ish stuff would be jarring.

Hemophobia

Blood is scary

For some people

https://www.healthline.com/health/hemophobia

[mark]

Maybe clean up the tube a little, let them see the body through glass, the off to the crematorium.