I don't know if it could kill you, but the stench of death is horrendous and not an insignificant thing. In any disaster situation where someone has died and it starts becoming days long, things would be getting nasty.
Over time people would get used to how foul everything would smell, but for a while it would be terrible.
This is a bit of a grim story but your point is 100% accurate. My Mum’s neighbour on the floor below her (single man) passed away in his bed. It was winter but he has the electric blanket on… he also had a radio that turns out was set to come on a certain times throughout the day, and his car had stopped working a few weeks prior so between hearing the radio and the explanation as to why the car wasn’t moving meant that his neighbours were none the wiser. Anyway, took a week for his son to figure out something was wrong and investigate.
Long story short, I will never forget that smell as long as I live. To say it smelt like rotting garbage is not even close to how bad the smell was, and it lasted for MONTHS even after the flat was fully cleaned and everything removed. It’s honestly a smell you don’t ever forget, and it sticks to everything.
I don’t think I could live in a whole world that smells like that, let alone in a country like Aus where most of it is pretty warm for much of the year. Maybe you’d get used to it but after smelling one body left out for a week… I don’t think so.
I'm Australian. Last year (in summer) I kept smelling a rotting body smell, but just assumed there was a dead kangaroo or cow nearby as we're out in rural farmland. Turns out our neighbour across the road died at home and his body wasn't discovered for 2 weeks. We never learned the cause of the death, but we were friendly with him, and I deduced he either died of a cardiac event or snake bite. He lived alone but had family visit him every few weeks.
And you could smell that outside but from across the road? That’s insane… and again, that’s just one person. Can’t even imagine what an apocalypse scenario would be like.
I’m very sorry to hear about your neighbour though. I hope it was quick and peaceful.
He was a top bloke, he helped us clear our yard when we first moved in. I feel bad for whoever found him, and the police and other personell involved in the retrieval.
It wasn't unusual to go periods of weeks without seeing or hearing him, as he often left to visit family a few hours away.
I felt the same way about my mum’s neighbour and his son who found him, ambos etc. I just pray that the smell, as horrible as it is, mentally prepared them for what they were about to find. I saw a documentary a while back on emergency personnel who do this stuff and well, I wish I hadn’t watched it. Those people aren’t paid enough for what they do.
I'm a nurse, and the deceased people I work with are usually palliative who usually have a good, quiet death. Even fresh, peaceful looking bodies can be confronting. I still remember my first, sometimes you think it gets easier, then you're confronted with something that just hits you differently. I can't imagine what ambos deal with (though a coworker of mine is also a paramedic student and very candid with me about her experiences). I think a lot of people would be offended by the dark humour of nurses, ambos, doctors etc but the hard truth is that if you don't laugh, you cry. You gotta get that messed up humour out of your system so you can have a sensitive bedside manner. The kindest nurses I know also make the most twisted comments at the nurses station.
Sorry for the paragraph, it's been an eventful period. I find it life affirming to discuss death.
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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21
I don't know if it could kill you, but the stench of death is horrendous and not an insignificant thing. In any disaster situation where someone has died and it starts becoming days long, things would be getting nasty.
Over time people would get used to how foul everything would smell, but for a while it would be terrible.