Injuries, accidents and medical emergencies

Blood and bodily fluid cleanup in San Jose

Not every call follows a death. A bad fall, a kitchen accident or a medical emergency can leave more blood than a household can safely deal with.

Call (669) 274-0805

Answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

When a household can manage, and when it cannot

A little of your own family's blood on a hard floor is housework with gloves on. The picture changes when the blood is someone else's, when there is a lot of it, or when it has gone into something porous: carpet, a mattress, a sofa, unsealed wood, the gaps between floorboards.

Blood can carry hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. Federal workplace rules class those as bloodborne pathogens and require employers to protect any worker who may be exposed, with a written plan, protective equipment, training and hepatitis B vaccination (OSHA). That shows how seriously the risk is taken, and it is why a business should not simply hand an employee a mop.

What the company deals with

Blood, vomit, urine and feces on floors, walls, stairs and furniture
Soaked carpet, pad and upholstery that cannot be disinfected where it sits
Fluids that ran under baseboards or between boards
The bathroom, hallway and doorways someone passed through on the way out
Sealed removal of everything that counts as regulated waste

At a business, or in a shared building

Shops, offices, gyms and restaurants

Close off the area and keep staff and customers out of it. Your commercial insurer may cover the cleaning; phone them before work starts and ask which records they want. Tell the cleanup company which hours you need to stay open, so it can plan around them.

Apartments and condominiums

Blood in a hallway, a stairwell, an elevator or a laundry room is the building owner's to deal with. Inside a unit, tenant and landlord should agree who is arranging it before anyone is hired. The page for landlords has more.

Two things people ask

Is blood cleanup different from crime scene cleanup?

The work is the same. The difference is what comes before it. After a crime, police control the scene and may release it hours or days later. After an accident there is usually nothing to wait for.

Can a carpet cleaner handle it?

A carpet cleaner lifts a stain from the pile. It does not reach the pad or the floor beneath, which is where the fluid went, and carpet cleaning firms are not set up to ship regulated waste. For more than a small spot, ask a company registered for trauma scene work.