CONTENT WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS AHEAD. This piece includes references to death that may be distressing for some readers.

Mortuary technician Hayleigh has captivated audiences by pulling back the curtain on her profession – and some of the details have left people thoroughly spooked.

A mortuary technician’s role involves preparing, dressing, and placing the deceased into coffins, ensuring they are handled with care and presented with dignity and respect.

Hayleigh, known as Mort Tech on TikTok, appeared on the Tea at Four podcast to discuss what transpires with our bodies post-mortem.

On TikTok as Mort Tech, Hayleigh delved into her duties which include “embalming, hair and recreational on their face if they’ve had trauma injuries”.

During the podcast, she covered a range of topics from the embalming process, designed to preserve the body and slow decomposition, to the various challenges her job entails.

Hosts Lauren and Billy were taken aback by many facets of her work, but one particular detail left them utterly astounded – the fate of organs after an autopsy. 

Hayleigh revealed: “During a post-mortem examination people seem to think that your organs are put back where nature intended. They’re not.

“They’re all put in a clinical bag back inside your torso, and your chest cavity and your stomach/abdomen, and you’re sutured back up. So your brain’s not in your head.”

The podcast hosts were taken aback as Lauren said, “Your brain is in your belly”, and Billy followed with, “Oh my God, that’s really freaked me out a little bit.”

Hayleigh justified her comment: “Because when you start cutting and taking things out it’s not gonna go back. You’re just going to wobble. And if things start to purge out… It’s best to keep it all contained.”

Listeners corroborated their astonishment in the comments, one admitting, “I could have lived my whole life perfectly fine not knowing this information.”

Another shared their unease: “This was information I did not need or want to know. Interesting but now questioning every funeral I’ve been to and if they had a post-mortem or not.”

Yet another commentator questioned common knowledge with: “Did people seriously think everything was all put back together again? “.

Hayleigh also emphasized that she respects privacy around the deceased but has approval from her superiors to “educate people people on the amount of genuine care that goes into looking after people’s loved ones”.