Lee Iordanidis has learnt how to manage her difficult surroundings in the 11 years she has been involved in
forensic cleaning.
A job which entails cleaning up murder, suicide or death scenes, it’s one that doesn’t strike the ideals of
most people.
Prompted by a family friend’s son who committed suicide, Iordanidis told news.com.au her work is so uninviting only four people in the country do it, but her need to help her friend spurred her to pursue the career path.
“Police [said] she would have to clean it up and her face was just one of horror, the view was terrible, the flies and maggots were terrible, so I said ‘I have to do this for her and for him’,” she said.
“I went off to Bunnings and bought rubber boots, gloves and a dust mask – that did nothing – and cleaned it up.
“It’s not how we would do it now, but I did the best I could without knowing what was the right way to do it at
the time.”
She explained she copes with the horrific scenes as a result of enduring a lot of death throughout her life, and her compassionate husband (along with her dark sense of humour) offers her a beacon of support to get her through the difficulties of her profession, which is often exacerbated when she sees a visual of the person she’s cleaning up after.
Tasks are often as physically demanding as they are psychologically, with a lot of heavy lifting and handling involved with her line of work, including discarding contaminated materials – with jobs taking anywhere between one day to six weeks depending on their size.
And sometimes her work hits too close to home.
“I went to one job for a man who died from suicide and realised his mum and my mum were close friends and I had played with this boy as a child … that was really hard,” she told news.com.au
“There was another job where a father … killed his little child. He died on the way to hospital.
“I went and hugged my nieces and nephews and told them how much I loved them
after that.”
But all too often the smell of death is one she
cannot escape.
“The body breaks down and fills with gases, turns a different colour and starts to smell and attract flies that lay maggots in it,” she said.
“We have to disinfect everything, throw away soft covered furniture, clean walls, ceilings, fans and even the
airconditioner filter.
“It gets into everything.
“I’ve come home and had showers upon showers and I still say I can smell it.”
Source: news.com.au