# In a hospital, how are dead bodies moved from the room to the morgue? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2014, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354 "2014-05-27T05:58:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/21 "2014-05-27T13:49:48Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > And the far more modern Ward 14. Yes, my first ward there. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/22 "2014-05-27T14:03:09Z")
in the room there is a door hinged at the bottom, it is marked LAUNDRY. it is not. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/23 "2014-05-27T14:21:24Z")
Funny tangent: my parents met over a dead body in a hospital. The story goes that a patient passed away and my mom (RNA back then) and my dad (Orderly) were sent to take care of the body. Apparently my dad let my mom do all the work and she thought “This guy is an ass” and brushed snottily past him out the door. Apparently he then took his pen out of his pocket, poked her in the ribs and said “You’re cute.” Back to your thread now… ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/24 "2014-05-27T14:34:15Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I once asked this very question. I asked a nurse, I think, it was a long time ago. She told me, whenever possible, and, almost always, the patient is made to appear as though they are only sleeping. And so, are routinely moved around the hospital with no one being any the wiser. > > She said the tip off was when the sheet completely obscured the neck, because usually they have a rolled facecloth tucked in there to keep the mouth closed! > > But it was a long time ago so perhaps it’s not the case any more. A few years ago I was walking though a hospital and saw a guy in a dark room with a toe tag. Later on I asked someone (a friend) that worked there about that. They said that when they took someone down to the morgue they don’t cover them up, they just push them around. According to him, if they just push the person around, they look like they’re asleep or under anesthesia, but if they cover them it’s pretty obvious what’s going on and that’s when people get a bit squiked out. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/25 "2014-05-27T15:43:44Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I could see it backfiring occasionally - if there’s some sudden local emergency (i.e. visitor collapses in a hallway) - and it just looks to non-staff as though there’s an empty bed right there. Only if the top layer can’t take a person’s weight. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/26 "2014-05-27T15:52:08Z")
> [@susan](#): > > In hospitals where I’ve worked, it’s a sheet-draped body being wheeled down the hall. The hall is cleared of non-staff first. In the one my father worked at, there were few enough patients that most of the moving could be done during off-hours. Patients who were known to be close to death would get individual rooms, which again made discretion easier (my father and my sister-in-law’s father died in the same room, the one nicknamed “the suite” because it’s extra large and has the best views in the hospital). The surgeries are in their own floor, the only patients you find there are unconscious and there will be no visitors. ---
**Author:** ![Fishtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed655f/32.png) [@Fishtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fishtar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/27 "2014-05-27T17:35:06Z")
I work in a 300 bed hospital in the American west. The morgue is now rarely used. The funeral homes usually come and pick up their customers directly from the room. The hospital and the funeral homes both have special carts, that look more like food and beverage carts than what they are…most humans are only 10 or so inches thick, and easier to conceal than most would think. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/28 "2014-05-27T17:41:12Z")
> [@Fishtar](#): > > I work in a 300 bed hospital in the American west. The morgue is now rarely used. The funeral homes usually come and pick up their customers directly from the room. The hospital and the funeral homes both have special carts, that look more like food and beverage carts than what they are…most humans are only 10 or so inches thick, and easier to conceal than most would think. My old job was also at a 300-bed hospital. I would usually come to work through the back entrance, and there would often be a funeral home loading a body into a hearse. Most homes used a maroon velvet drape over the stretcher, but there was one that used a fancy embroidered quilt, and to me, that was a bit unnerving. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/29 "2014-05-27T17:41:45Z")
From what I’ve seen in a nursing home / hospice for Alzheimer’s patients, that’s how it works there, too. The funeral home brings their own gurney, or borrows the facility’s, and brings the dear departed out to the van under a sheet. Any resident who still has enough faculties to understand and be bothered is distracted or kept inside. ---
**Author:** ![Fishtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed655f/32.png) [@Fishtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fishtar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/30 "2014-05-27T17:49:49Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > , and to me, that was a bit unnerving. Yeah, unnerving. Since everybody involved in the whole process seems like they could care less…the more they fancy it up…the more creepy it gets. ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/31 "2014-05-27T18:17:58Z")
My mom died in a nursing home. The guys from the funeral home came within an hour, and asked us to step out of the room. When they took her, she had been placed in what I assume was a body bag (black), covered with a sheet. Nurses went up the hallway and closed patient room doors before she was taken through the hallway. ---
**Author:** ![Fishtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed655f/32.png) [@Fishtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fishtar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/32 "2014-05-27T18:27:33Z")
Also, as for autopsies… The county coroner does most of those, in their own facilities, based on certain criteria, mostly based on age. Also, sometimes the family wants a private autopsy, but that is also done offsite. The only thing commonly done at the hospital is the “harvest” (I really hate the term, but others love it, because of the serious $$ involved) which refers to organ and tissue donation. This is done in the OR, for sterility reasons. There is an autopsy table in the morgue, but it is even more rarely used. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/33 "2014-05-27T19:38:38Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > …the patient is made to appear as though they are only sleeping. And so, are routinely moved around the hospital with no one being any the wiser. At any hospital I’ve worked in - and there have been several - the deceased is tagged and wrapped in a shroud before leaving the room on a gurney. A plain sheet is draped over the shrouded body and it is wheeled to the service elevator. There is no effort to clear the hallways or otherwise hide what is happening (although side trips through the cafeteria are frowned upon). mmm ---
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/34 "2014-05-27T20:07:10Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I stayed over (illegally) occasionally in the hospital where both my parents worked when I was a kid. My Dad was the Head Theatre Porter - something like chief orderly for surgery? - meaning that he’d sometimes be moving a body that was dead. The dead bodies had a sheet over their faces, green if they’d died in theatre, white if they’d died afterwards. Living people had their faces uncovered. This just gave me an idea for a prank next time I go to a Hospital. Just hope I don’t fall asleep waiting for the prankee and end up on a refrigerator. ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/35 "2014-05-27T20:41:17Z")
> [@Fishtar](#): > > most humans are only 10 or so inches thick, and easier to conceal than most would think. You obviously haven’t visit my local Walmart. I would say most people there are three times as thick.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/36 "2014-05-27T22:02:23Z")
Thanks for the info. I once looked this up for fiction writing purposes and I got the impression that the body was on a much lower platform under the top. Seemed to make it difficult to move it around. The removable shell seems more practical. Dr. Cox: Write this down, newbie: If you push around a stiff, nobody’ll ask you to do anything. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/37 "2014-05-27T22:47:42Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Thanks for the info. I once looked this up for fiction writing purposes and I got the impression that the body was on a much lower platform under the top. Seemed to make it difficult to move it around. The removable shell seems more practical. > > Dr. Cox: Write this down, newbie: If you push around a stiff, nobody’ll ask you to do anything. Yes, thank you all for your replies, this was very interesting. I guess I thought there were some kind of standard body handling practices, now I see its pretty much hospital by hospital. Also, thanks for the correcting my misconception about morgues and autopsies. It was a cheesy, campy but very entertaining movie. It did motivate me to learn something new, which is always a good thing. I really did think that pushing a covered body down the halls was dramatic license. I guess that was the only “real” part of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![ASGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/38 "2014-05-28T01:54:50Z")
I volunteered as a male “candy striper” for three years at a Seventh Day Adventist hospital in the Los Angeles area from 1980 to early 1984. It was a blast. As a late-20’s single guy, I met many eligible nurses, which was the whole idea. But to answer the OP question, when such duty was required and I was on duty I tagged the patient with the classic toe-tag and had a nurse or two help me lift the patient onto a regular gurney. Covered with a sheet, no subterfuge devices present, I wheeled the patient into the nearest elevator and down to level B2, the morgue. No effort was made to hide the unavoidable fact that people die – and people in hospitals die often. My 500 hours as a volunteer (under no duress) was a great experience. If you are a single guy and want to meet women, I recommend it. If you are a single woman and want to meet guys, maybe not. Sorry if that sounds sexist, but let’s face it, most nurses are women, even in 2014. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/39 "2014-05-28T02:51:11Z")
> [@Fishtar](#): > > … The only thing commonly done at the hospital is the “harvest” (I really hate the term, but others love it, because of the serious $$ involved) which refers to organ and tissue donation. This is done in the OR, for sterility reasons. There is an autopsy table in the morgue, but it is even more rarely used. Hasn’t it be renamed “organ _recovery_” now? And isn’t it usually done after brain death, but before life support is switched off (which would necessitate an OR rather than a morgue)? ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354/40 "2014-05-28T05:55:17Z")
> [@Saturn\_Dreams](#): > > …having them go for a body run … > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > …down the hill to it’s refrigerated destination… > [@Fishtar](#): > > …most humans are only 10 or so inches thick, and easier to conceal than most would think. > [@UDS](#): > > How is a cooled cadaver storage room not a morgue? Have I mentioned before how much I love this forum? :o [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-hospital-how-are-dead-bodies-moved-from-the-room-to-the-morgue/689354.md?page=3)