Tackling some clean-up jobs requires a delicate touch

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it ­ and do it with a great deal of sensitivity and skill

By David Stroup
The Clackamas Review Sept. 5, 2006

Steve and Jennifer Ott have a job you don’t want.

The Otts both work for public safety agencies – but they’ve also started their own business on the side. And although you don’t want to do it – you may not even want to hear about it – they derive tremendous satisfaction from it, and say it gives them a chance to make a big difference in the lives of their clients.

The Otts clean up.

“It’s always after the body has been removed,” Jennifer Ott said. “We clean up all of the blood, tissue… off the walls and floor.”

“There are countless suicides that you don’t hear about,” Steve Ott said, “and unattended deaths where the person isn’t found.”

The Otts recently launched Critical Care BioRecovery, specializing in death and crime scene clean-up. It’s a job that requires both sensitivity and specialized training and equipment – they’re also prepared to deal with blood and other hazards in cleaning up after industrial accidents, “trash houses” and the homes of “animal hoarders.”

“We really do enjoy what we do,” Jennifer Ott said. “The first suicide we had, it was in a garage, and there was a large pool. We got started – and it was an epiphany.

“An amazing sense of responsibility,” she said. “Being able to take care of them – they had put this in our hands.”

Critical time

“In my role, I have given death notifications,” Jennifer Ott said.

Neither can discuss which public safety agency they are members of; they aren’t supposed to derive any personal profit or business edge from those careers. Their careers, however, had brought them into contact with people facing the aftermath of a death.

The technical aspects of those cleanups can be daunting, but she said “the bigger element is dealing with people.

“Allaying their fears – not having them take care of it.”

She said something they heard from June Vining – the director of the Trauma Intervention Program – gave them the idea for starting the business.

“They provide emotional support in the critical hours after a death,” Jennifer Ott explained. “One of the comments she made was that this happens all the time – and there’s a critical need for people to clean it up.”

The Otts went to Boston to train at the American Biorecovery Association. “They put on a quarterly three-day training,” she said. “It covers all aspects of viruses, bacteria, how to clean up, OSHA standards, personal protection gear, what chemicals you need.”

Steve Ott said there are a couple of other companies in the same line of work in the area, but they’re the only ones with that certification — and “we’re the only ones who focus on just this kind of work.”

Based in Clackamas, the Otts have already found clients from all over the state.

When the Otts are brought into a case, they come on the scene at what must surely be one of the worst times of their client’s life.

Whenever there is a suicide or a death not attended by a physician, the police are called. “They’ll determine whether there was any foul play,” Jennifer Ott explained. If not, the medical examiner is called in and the body is removed – but whether there was a crime scene investigation or not, only the body and any relevant evidence is taken away. If there was a suicide involving a firearm, or if a body went weeks before being discovered, there may be a considerable mess – and the blood and fluids are considered a biohazard requiring special handling.

The police can’t clean that up; they can’t even endorse or recommend a particular company for the job. “But they can have a list,” Jennifer Ott said. “They can give that list to people.”

“The people who are responsible for that property,” Steve Ott said, “are also responsible for the clean-up – it’s a little-known fact.”

Methodical work

Every case that Critical Care BioRecovery faces is unique. Tackling a cleanup calls on both their special training and the sensitivity they have learned in their public safety professions – as well as a certain amount of learned unflappability.

On a recent weekday the Otts prepared to clean up a one-bedroom apartment in the northwest. The resident had killed himself in the bedroom with a shot to his head. The body had gone undiscovered for several weeks; in all, seven weeks had passed since the death.

“You establish certain zones,” Jennifer Ott explained. The ‘red zone’ is the area where the actual contamination is found; the ‘green zone’ is the safe, clean area; and the ‘yellow zone’ lies between. “Once you’re in the red zone, you need to stay in the red zone until you’re finished.”

There may be material on the walks, floor, even the ceiling: “You need to go into the room and clean as you go,” she said. “You clean from the top down… you don’t want anything dropping on you, or on the cleaned area.”

Cleaning even a crime scene that has long since dried up is difficult: “You can’t be scraping dried blood – that puts it back in the air.” They work by wetting down old, dried blood and tissue as needed, and then adding binder – a product that soaks up and binds fluids. The same product is used to clean up vomit in schools.

In the close, hot Northwest apartment, they was almost no smell remaining – except for the sharp tang of the chemicals they used. The Otts worked wrapped head to foot in blue biohazard suits with as many as three layers of gloves and face masks – an outfit that quickly became stiflingly hot on a summer day.

The suicide had taken place on the bed; Bedclothes went into the biohazard disposal bags; anything soaked with blood or contaminated with tissue would be driven down to a medical waste incinerator in Salem for disposal.

“You can’t just take it to the dump,” Jennifer Ott said.

“If you clean up a large amount of blood, you can’t just throw it away,” Steve Ott said.

The blood-soaked mattress couldn’t just be thrown out; working methodically the Otts cut off the contaminated portions, putting them in the disposal bags. They’ll clean up only as much as needs their special training – leaving the rest for less expensive and less specialized cleaning crews – or they’ll tackle entire houses, if needed.

It’s difficult, wrenching, tedious and – potentially – dangerous work, cleaning up biological material that they have to assume could be contaminated with viruses or bacteria. But the Otts say the reaction of their clients makes it worthwhile.

“It was very difficult for them,” Steve Ott said, remembering their first clients. “We brought a real sense of relief for them – by taking care of this business.

“To take care of something that they can’t handle, or don’t want to – we’ll give them peace of mind.”

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