Oh, gross: A job I couldn't bearDallas Morning News (vile "free" subscription required), TX -
09:18 PM CDT on Monday, August 16, 2004
Michael Tillman's students have to be tough. During a class last week, the group shouldered in close for a sober view of training exhibit A, a beat-up mattress soaked to the springs with partially congealed blood and studded with flecks of tissue and bone. They listened earnestly as the lecture commenced. I edged toward the door and fought a powerful urge to vomit.
It wasn't the worst the students would see and smell that day – they had yet to cover "decomp," Mr. Tillman's brisk shorthand for the natural effluvia produced by a corpse in the later stages of decay --- and they were paying $1,400 apiece for the privilege....
One woman who said she has an undergraduate degree in literature from Texas A&M told me that she spent the last five years in Japan teaching English. She wants a career change, and she figures that decontaminating trauma scenes is a valuable service.
"Someone has to do it," she said matter-of-factly. "If you think you can handle it, you can help people who can't."
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