# Are hospital morgues staffed 24 hours?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 21, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787 "2015-07-21T15:50:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/21 "2015-07-22T13:06:28Z")
So what about those stories you read of, of "dead’ people coming back to life in the morgue? Does this really happen, or is it all a mistake (some over worked intern mistakenly declaring some one dead), who actually has a pulse. Has any corpse ever sat up and began to talk?
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/22 "2015-07-22T13:36:17Z")
[Here](http://www.snopes.com/sports/horse/deadjockey.asp)’s an interesting story of someone being declared dead prematurely. In 1936, a jockey named Ralph Neves fell during a horse race in California. The horse fell on top of him and he was declared dead by the track physician. He was taken to a local hospital and toe-tagged. (It’s not clear if he was actually in the morgue.) He was administered a shot of adrenaline (although that suggests someone thought he still had a chance). He sat up, ran out of the hospital and took a cab back to the track, where people were praying for him. Must have freaked out the crowd.
---
### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/23 "2015-07-22T15:30:13Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#):
>
> **Ca7399** thank you for your and your colleagues’ kindness to these bereaved families.
Ditto that. Your post made me cry. ☹
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/24 "2015-07-22T17:32:51Z")
It’s surprising that they have trouble covering the Graveyard Shift.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/25 "2015-07-22T17:50:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> It’s surprising that they have trouble covering the Graveyard Shift.
My SO, an RN, says they don’t use the term ‘graveyard shift’ in hospitals – for obvious reasons. I’ll bet they do though, just not within earshot of the supervisors.
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/26 "2015-07-22T18:03:07Z")
On quiet nights in the emergency department, do they say, “Wow, it’s dead in here, isn’t it?”
---
### Author:  [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/27 "2015-07-22T23:37:55Z")
I thought I had answered this question (or one similar to it) before:
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17413087&postcount=47](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17413087&postcount=47)
Short answer, I worked in a small/medium sized hospital when I was 19. Our primary job was to distribute sterile supplies and drugs to the different departments. Our secondary job was to move bodies down to the morgue when someone died.
The secondary part of the job was not communicated to me before I was hired.
Our morgue never had anyone working in it. It was just a small, cold room with a few gurneys, where bodies waited before being sent elsewhere (usually a funeral home would come pick them up).
Also, bodies were wrapped by nurses before we picked them up.
---
### Author:  [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/28 "2015-07-23T01:50:46Z")
So since most hospitals don’t seem to have 24 hour morgue attendents (deiners) who does the paperwork and attaches the identification to make sure the correct corpse gets the right id?
---
### Author:  [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/29 "2015-07-23T02:04:54Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#):
>
> So since most hospitals don’t seem to have 24 hour morgue attendents (deiners) who does the paperwork and attaches the identification to make sure the correct corpse gets the right id?
At my place, nurses do it.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/30 "2015-07-23T02:05:42Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#):
>
> Staffed not stiffed.
Whatever. I just want to stop in for a cool one.
---
### Author:  [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/31 "2015-07-23T02:15:22Z")
(Thanks, **ThelmaLou** and \*\*Cub Mistress \*\*. This part of maternal/OB care is often hidden and is a bit of a sub-specialty in the field. People really don’t know how frequently things go badly. I can’t say I enjoy this part of my work, but my facility does this part very well. We take a special training program.)
---
### Author:  [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/32 "2015-07-23T02:23:42Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> My SO, an RN, says they don’t use the term ‘graveyard shift’ in hospitals – for obvious reasons. I’ll bet they do though, just not within earshot of the supervisors.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a business use “graveyard”–they usually call it “overnight” or “night” shift.
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/33 "2015-07-23T02:29:36Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#):
>
> So since most hospitals don’t seem to have 24 hour morgue attendents (deiners) who does the paperwork and attaches the identification to make sure the correct corpse gets the right id?
Where I worked, the nurses.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/34 "2015-07-23T03:08:55Z")
> [@installLSC](#):
>
> I don’t think I’ve ever heard a business use “graveyard”–they usually call it “overnight” or “night” shift.
Dad used it all the time. He was FAA, and before that, Navy.
ETA: He also used ‘midwatch’.
.
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/35 "2015-07-23T03:30:46Z")
I got an interview with a morgue but didn’t go since I heard the hours were pretty stiff.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/36 "2015-07-23T05:28:44Z")
> [@installLSC](#):
>
> I don’t think I’ve ever heard a business use “graveyard”–they usually call it “overnight” or “night” shift.
Businesses may not use it officially, but workers sure do. (My brother works the graveyard frequently.)
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/37 "2015-07-24T01:05:55Z")
> [@installLSC](#):
>
> I don’t think I’ve ever heard a business use “graveyard”–they usually call it “overnight” or “night” shift.
Printers, newspapermen, proofers: “lobster shift.” No idea why.
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/38 "2015-07-24T01:14:12Z")
FTR, the thread mentioned above, [In a hospital, how are dead bodies moved from the room to the morgue?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17413087). Also see[Death and removal of the body](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=636819). And [How long can a person survive in a morgue fridge?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695636). This last one tells us the fridge is 2-4deg C., but without cite. OP was posting there for the first time too.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/39 "2015-07-24T01:25:23Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Businesses may not use it officially, but workers sure do. (My brother works the graveyard frequently.)
Indeed. I’ve been hearing about the graveyard shift as far back as I can remember. Sure, it’s not an official term, but I had interviews as a young man where they directly called it the graveyard shift. It’s so common that a simple search comes up with a wiki disambiguation page that shows it as the title of two movies, an episode of SpongeBob, a radio program, and two video game missions.
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787/40 "2015-07-24T01:33:13Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> …
>
> BTW, other hospitals did it differently, but we didn’t cover the deceased’s head with a sheet. We simply closed their eyes and acted like they were asleep until we got downstairs.
From “How are bodies…” SD thread above, I found a post of my own also, on a quite more elaborate procedure:
> [@](#):
>
> …the body is wrapped in a sheet, placed on a gurney. Over the body is a large rectangle simple frame with two cross-ribs, which are barely visible underneath a thick white plastic removable tarpaulin drawn over it and the body underneath. It looks like nothing else you see, sort of a coffin but double high (the top is about high chest level) and slightly wider at the foot, so the whole thing looks sort of whatever-hospital-stuff/delivery when pushed by a kindly orderly through the public corridors down and up from basement bedside, up staff-only elevator, loop-de-loop through staff classrooms as well as public clinics, back down to morgue on basement level in other building.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787.md?page=1)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hospital-morgues-staffed-24-hours/725787.md?page=3)