Accidents, falls and medical emergencies
Blood and bodily fluid cleanup in Santa Maria
Not every call is about a death. A deep cut in the kitchen, a fall in the bathroom, a seizure, an injury on a shop floor: the ambulance leaves and the blood is still there.
Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
When you can deal with it, and when you should not
A small amount on tile, vinyl or sealed concrete is something many households clean themselves with gloves and a household disinfectant used as its label directs. This page is not trying to talk you out of that.
A cleanup company is worth the call in these cases:
- Blood has soaked into carpet, a mattress, a sofa or unsealed wood.
- The amount is large, or it has spread across more than one room.
- You do not know whose blood it is, as in a rental, a shop or a public restroom.
- The person who would have to clean it is the person who watched it happen.
Why soaked materials are the real problem
Blood can carry viruses. Federal workplace safety officials name hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV among them. On a hard floor the liquid stays on top where you can reach it. In carpet it goes through to the pad and the wood below, and a clean-looking surface can sit over a stain that is still wet.
That is why companies cut out and remove more than a homeowner would expect. Ask them to mark what they plan to take before they begin, and to explain why.
If it happened at work
California's workplace rule on bloodborne pathogens, Title 8, section 5193, says an employer whose staff may be exposed to blood must keep a written Exposure Control Plan, with training and protective equipment to match. A clinic will have one. Many restaurants, packing sheds and shops have never needed one.
If yours does not, sending an employee in with a mop puts both of you in a bad position. Close off the area and have an outside company do it.
Where the waste goes
Under California law, material soaked with blood from a serious injury is trauma scene waste. It may not go in the household bin. A registered company takes it from the property as soon as the removal is finished and delivers it to a permitted medical waste facility. The state health department registers the firms allowed to do this.
Practical questions
Can the carpet be saved?
Sometimes, when the spill was small and recent. Once blood has reached the pad, the affected section normally comes out. The company can tell you after lifting a corner.
Do they take the mattress away?
A registered company removes what it cuts out or bags, including a mattress or cushions. Confirm that on the call, because haul-away is part of the price.
Other fluids, not blood. Does the same apply?
Vomit, urine and faeces are handled by the same companies. Say what it is and how much. For an illness that spread through a household or a workplace, see disinfection after illness.
Whenever suits you
Hand the room to people whose trade this is
Two sentences about the situation are plenty. You then hear how the firm would tackle it and what it would bill. Yes or no is yours alone to say, today or next week.
The number for Santa Maria and the valley
Whoever picks up belongs to a cleanup firm that takes jobs from Guadalupe up to Grover Beach. It is a separate business from this website. Name your town, say what sort of place it is, and ask anything.
Call (805) 362-1926Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
The call may be recorded. How this works is set out in the referral disclosure.