• David O'Brian runs academy for 'Trauma Scene Medical Waste Practitioners'
• Learn the necessary skills to undertake such macabre tasks
  

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 06:51 EST, 14 August 2013 | UPDATED: 08:00 EST, 14 August 2013

A Las Vegas man is running a workshop teaching students to clean up murder, suicide and crime scenes.

David O'Brian runs the academy for potential 'Trauma Scene Medical Waste Practitioners'  in Nevada, but it's not for the faint-hearted.

Students who want to specialise in clearing homes can pay $5,000 (£3,200) to learn the necessary skills to undertake such the macabre task.

For those intent on a career in crime and tragedy's grisly aftermath, Mr O'Brian provides the relevant coaching and cleaning expertise needed to deal with the grim job.

But the monetary rewards can be high, he said.

Mr O'Brian, who has been doing this murky job for eight years, recalled a unnamed Hollywood starlet who passed away and sorting out her fly-infested home earned him $40,000 (£25,000).

He was also paid $28,000 (£18,000) to clean an elderly lady's house that had been overridden with her cats for years.

'It took two weeks to clean up,' Mr O'Brian said.

According to Mr O'Brian, who used to work as a body transporter in a crematorium, said the biggest challenges are blood-soaked mattresses and brain-matter that has dried in the crevices of ceilings.

Mr O'Brian explained: 'When a person is shot in the head and their cerebellum splatters against a bedroom wall the brains are very hard to clean off the surface. Popcorn ceilings are the worst.

'Brains are comprised of 12 per cent fat - essentially they're cholesterol - which hardens when it dries.

'You have to hydrate it with CVC - a chemical that can kill every germ known to man.'

Mr O'Brian prepares his students for the genuine article by making the scene as realistic as possible.

He makes them breathe in the odour of stale blood and forces them to handle bedding wriggling with maggots.

Mr O'Brian tells his students: 'I want you to get familiar with the smell.

'It's the smell of death and you need to know how to identify it.

'With mattresses you cut them with a utility knife - wherever you see blood cut it out.'

Despite the grisly nature of his job, Mr O'Brian said that families of the deceased can become attached and feel a bond with him because he has been responsible for restoring some order to their devastated homes.

But you have to take a step back, he said, and not get involved.

'You have to detach. They'll want to talk. Don't have long conversations,' added Mr O'Brian.

'Don't tell them anything personal - you're there to work despite being their knight in shining amour.'

He added: 'This is a good job - for the right people.

'There's nothing glamorous about this. We're not looking for fame. We're here to help the distraught.'