A corpse sitting up on the slab due to the effects of rigor mortis.

I never thought much about it other than the "creepy" factor and also, "why would anyone want to.."

Then, one day, while working in clinical training in my little specialty corner of the medical field, I happened to be in the right (wrong?) place at the right (wrong?) time. I was called upon to assist with a corpse that had been recovered from the bottom of the ocean. The body had belonged to a military helicopter pilot. He was found inside the aircraft still fastened inside his safety harnesses. The fish had managed to eat away all the skin and flesh that wasn't bound by certain parts of his thick jumpsuit, safety belts, and boots. It was strange looking because parts of him were perfectly intact and other parts gone, following near-perfect linear edges where the safety harnesses once were.

The point is, I was able to work without a problem. I'm almost ashamed to say that it didn't faze me in the least. Unusual business as usual. I felt very detached from the fact that the body I was handling used to belong to a living being, a person.

Then, after the job was finished, on my way out of the morgue, I passed by the personal effects of the pilot laid out on a pad on the floor. There were his boots, his watch, his wedding ring, his wallet, and his dog tags. On the chain with his dog tags was a little vinyl hologram like the kind you get from a Cracker Jack Box.

It was only then that I began to cry.

I later learned from the buzz going around the hospital that he'd had a wife and kids. I still think about this experience from time to time. It was eons ago and I was very young, and it was a complete fluke for a kid in my position to have even been in that situation at all.

/r/WTF Thread Parent Link - i.imgur.com