Any tissue/blood or bone samples must all be treated as a potential hazardous material whether the donor is known
or not.
My SAR team in northwest Montana has been nagged to the nth regarding proper storage and handling of any/all
training aids we might receive. After all, I am a nurse and come into contact with this stuff daily.
Personal protection is definitely important. I double glove with surgical gloves, wear eye protection and mask,
and have disposable fluid barrier gowns that I get from the hospital when preparing training samples. My
samples are all placed into fluid barrier bags (extra thick plastic that is made for hazardous
waste/blood/chemotherapy), then boxed, then put into ANOTHER bag before being put into the freezer.
The material at room temperature is treated the same and has its own designated ammo box. I
have a designated spot where samples are made smaller and placed into containers that prevent the dogs from
actual physical contact (glass jars, plastic film canisters, etc.).
I have knives, etc. that are ONLY used for the preparation of said materials. These instruments will never be
placed anywhere but the designated spot in which I am working.
My work bench is covered with plastic before I start and over that are "blue pads" which are designed to
collect and hold fluid. Once completed, all is collected and placed in a disposable plastic bag along
with my gloves and gown and disposed of in the hospital incinerator.
Containers with samples are only handled with intact gloves. Handlers wear latex gloves under their
leather work gloves when working cadaver problems in the event a lid pops off and the material is no
longer safely contained.
Most of my placentas, quite a bit of the body parts, and a vast majority of my blood samples are all
complements of friends, such giving folk they are. Keep telling them I need some brain matter and a
few fingers/toes, but they keep telling me that I expect too much from them. The bone fragments and
femur that I have came out of a hospital OR and since I don't know the history behind them, they are
treated with utmost caution as are all the various other body fluids I have stored.
Oh yeah...you can always tell a dedicated cadaver dog trainer by the fact that they have more than
one freezer -- one for the training aids in the garage, and one in the kitchen for the ice cream...
Kim Gilmore has been training SAR dogs since 1985,
currently training her fourth, a Belgian Tervuren. She's a SAR handler and trainer serving with
Flathead County Search & Rescue and North Valley Search & Rescue
in Northwest Montana USA, and in Alberta, Canada with Foothills Search & Rescue Society and
RCMP Civilian Search Dog Association. Kim is also a member of 1st Special Response Group
and responded to Fiji for a lost American tourist.
Learn more on Kim's personal web page.
Further reading:
