Maybe used to tie up horses, then after cars took the place of horses...the fixture was just left there? Just a guess. Although I am rarely wrong about anything.

I know a lot of hospitals had their own salons at the time, because patient stay in hospitals used to be often for MONTHS before the advancements we have in medicine today. Modern medicine allows surgerical procedures to be in outpatient status, procedures that used to require days worth in inpatient stays in hosptials in latter times. So perhapes this is one of this hair dryer things used in salons at the time...but it dosen't really looke like that. Hmmm...

I am surprised that crusifx has not been stolen by now.

Wow, I guess when the patient was discharged he/she just didn't need them anymore.

That photo leaves a very ominous feeling within. I bet it was used for hydrotherapy. A not so relaxing "therapy" used to treat mental illness.

Stuart probably wasn't the patient. They don't put pt's names on doors in hospitals! They don't even do that in prisons. Only in movies they do that. It was probably the name of the ward or hall or a postion of a hospital worker who had their office in there. It also could have been the last name of someone who had a permanet office there.

Hospitals don't have viewings. Funeral homes do.

I work in a hospital. One MUST have a sense of humor or you go crazy. Also, I don't think it was meant to be funny or crude. It just is what it is.. a body and a fridge. It isn't like the corpse sees it and I doubt families ever went in there, it isn't like a funeral home that needs to be sensetive to those things. It is the back guts of a hospital where only staff goes.

Why is this stuff just left there? LOL I can't help but giggle to myself how stuff is JUST left behind when hosptials close! Anyway, I would have opened it. I could not have left without opening it.

Wow that is a GREAT photo. My favorite so far.

It was used to clean and disinfect obviously. I am always preplexed how this stuff was just left behind. It is as though when these hospitals close down, there was no preparation at all...it just was open and then BOOM shut down and no one cared enough to pack and clean up. Then again...why? It isn't like any of the workers had a job to come back to. Nonetheless I would think some sort of biohazard clean up crew would be brought in. Guess not.

Notice the knocked over blood vials (glass)? I wonder how and why they ended up there and why they were just...left there. I always am lost in thought when I look at photos from deserted hospitals; it never ceases to preplex me how stuff is ACTUALLY left behind...not just furniture ,which I would think would be auctioned or donated, but items one would one think would be disposed of such as blood vials, patient belongings that were left behind and such. I also find it confusing why imparative documents such as patient's records and personal information is just often left behind and deserted. That sort of paperworkd is highly protected in all healthcare facilities. I would assume it would follow the patient or go to whatever facility the patient was transfered to. Apparently records are not has vital, confidential and important as we all thought. I often see them for bid on Ebay.

Yep, healthcare in general is notrious for paperwork. That is all my job really is, "pencil pushing." But it is more of a liability issue than anything. Also though, that information collected is used in a benefical way. The statistics collected help research determine what areas need attention the most and what the common ratio for certain illness, injuries, mental illness and accidents are. One has to know where to begin helping before help can be given. I think this form was used mostly to document collection samples taken from the corpse at the time of autopsy. Of couse a dead person can't answer a survey.

There are no soap dispensers because liquid soap is a rather new ideal. Bar soap was always used, most likely around the time this hospital closed. Anyone take notice of the pile of wadded up old paper towels just tossed carelessly on the floor? I wonder how they got there...I mean surely this wash area had a trash can. It looks liked they were pulled or dumped out of a garbage bin and tossed there. Hmmm...
Also, dosen't make much sense to attempt to avoid getting toxins/germs/bodily fluids etc on your flesh if you are still turning off and on the sinks with your elbows. It still transfers to the flesh. Paper towels are the best way to go, turn off the sinks with those. Although, like many things that wasn't common practice until recently.

This container is probably smaller than what most of us are used to now days because (I am assuming) this hospital closed before such safety percautions and standards were enforced . Before the AIDS epidemic medical items such as sharps were generally simply diposed of in regular garbage cans and dumped with the regular garbage and landfills if not incernerated. Gloves, disposable syringes, thermometers etc...were all reused with often times with little more sanitaztion and disenfectant than substandard autoclaving and simple alchoal solution. Before the AIDS epidemic it wasn't even something that was thought about, blood and bodily fluids were just well....that; they were gross but usually harmless. Although it is that practice that in part played a role in the rapid onset of the spread of AIDS. Luckily now the medical world knows better. I do have to say though it is disapointing how careless medical workers can be; I work in a hospital (in the ER) and I believe there are many practices as well as healthcare workers (myself included) that could pay more mind to such safety standards. It is better to be proactive rather than reactive but sometimes you get in a hurry (especially in emergency medicine that is very fast paced and demanding) and you just don't have time to constantly wash your hands and change gloves every few minutes. When a patient comes in bleeding or in cardiac arrest you just react.