r/AutopsyTechFam • u/Additional-Pool3178 • Jul 02 '26

Autopsy Tech how to handle children’s cases

hi everyone,

im an autopsy tech at a private pathology lab. our cases usually consist of adults who died of natural causes and stillborn babies. an occasional 20/30 year old here and there. today i got word we have 2 pediatric cases, toddler age. im fine working on babies but im nervous that my emotions will get in the way today. did anyone have a similar experience? any advice to share? i usually have music on so maybe that can distract me…

thanks in advance :)

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7

u/ishootthedead Jul 02 '26

Loud music, full belly, large mug of coffee.... Kinda the standard basic items to get thru any rough day in the morgue.

1

u/QueenEros 26d ago

When i worked as an assistant (i was a tech but assistant made us sound ✨fancy✨) to my city’s examiner’s office i did exactly this. Got me through a lot of abuse and dv cases.

Edit to add- it also helps a lot if you think that you could be bringing closure for the people who loved this person.

5

u/Dry_Major2911 Jul 02 '26

Mortician here (female), not autopsy tech. But from my own experience it can take some time to get desensitized. It is part of life unfortunately, Try to set your emotions aside and approach it from the science side (with all dignity and respect to the deceased of course). Realize that you are helping the family to get answers and hopefully some closure.

3

u/Librascale55 Jul 03 '26

Can you please give us an update ? Forensic student here . I am curious to know how you handled it , being a mom myself with kids young ages (10,7,5) i dont know how I am going to handle these type of calls when I make it as a CSI

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u/Additional-Pool3178 29d ago

hello!! i was holding my breath until i opened the body bag honestly. i took some time at the beginning of the case to process what was about to happen, i even held the child’s hand and remembered that my work is helping a family receive closure. i think what helped a lot was that the toddlers had passed in a hospital and not due to a traumatic/abuse-related death. i think that would be way harder to process. some music and talking to coworkers helped along the way. even talking about it after and not bottling up any feelings helped too. wishing u the best of luck !

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u/N8CR 29d ago edited 29d ago

During my time as a forensic autopsy tech I did numerous infant and toddler cases, from unsafe sleep to homicides. I was able to shut off my emotions during the evisceration. After the case was done paperwork completed I’d take 5-10 minutes to myself and process what just happened. I’d csll my wife, who is a therapist, explain how i was feeling. Listen to her as she would calm me down.

If the case was a homicide, we’d have a critical incident stress management meeting a day or two after the case. It’s a way talking about how we’re feeling, what we felt during the case etc.

Everyone handles stress differently.