Journey of the Dead

Recently a few people have asked me what happens to their body when they die so I thought that I would take a moment and briefly describe a few situations that could happen. Consider this a "Pick Your Journey" kind of blog. Or even better, like an R.L. Stine "Give Yourself Goosebumps" book.

So to quote the infamous Mr. Stine, "Reader beware...you're in for a scare!"

Let us start off with the most likely situation in our society: You die in a hospital. Now in a hospital depending on how you die two things can happen. If it's of natural causes you die and nothing else happens, as far as extra medical procedures. (And when I say, "die of natural causes" what I am implying is that your death was due to illness or an internal malfunction, nothing that was influenced externally). The doctor talks to your family about what happened and then your family will discuss what funeral home they should use and then a nurse will typically call on behalf of your family to that said funeral home to let us know of your passing.

Then a couple hours later after your paperwork is done, security or someone who works in the morgue is called and they bring a transportation cart up to the room in which you passed away in. A toe tag  with your information on it is placed on your big toe and then you are placed in a white body bag on top of the cart. A cart topper is then placed over your remains with a sheet covering everything. This is done to protect the delicate sensibilities of the living, because as we know children death is a very scary monster out to get us all.

Once down in the morgue your body is then placed into the cooler. Now back in the olden days they use to look like this. 

The typical creepy coolers that you would probably see in a haunted house or horror movie. Most hospitals do not use these any more. The sign on these coolers say, "Morgue coolers no longer in use, please use walk-in coolers. Thank You" If I were to guess the main reason why most hospitals do not use actual morgue coolers anymore, it would be due to the fact that it makes the life of the morgue staff a lot easier since they do not have to lift bodies off or onto the cooler slabs. 

This is what a typical walk-in cooler looks like. If you have worked in a grocery store and had to stock refrigerated products, it looks exactly like that. The transportation cart with your remains is pushed inside and then they close the door. 

Once your body has made it to the morgue, the security officer or morgue staff remember will then call the funeral home again to let them know that we can now come and transfer your remains into our care. 

Now let's pretend that you died at the hospital but it wasn't from natural causes, or was anything that warranted an autopsy. In that case your body would be taken to where the doctor would perform the autopsy, or if an medicolegal investigation was needed, it would be transported to the medical examiners office where they can run toxicology and a whole slew of other tests to really identified what caused your demise. Once your body was released for pick up, the funeral home of your family's choosing would go to the medical examiner's office and transport your remains into our care. 

If you were lucky enough to live to a ripe old age and were placed into a nursing home and passed away there; the nursing staff would contact the funeral home your family chose and we would arrive and transport your remains into our care. This process is a bit quicker because nursing homes don't have morgues so we need to get there quickly to remove you. This is also where a lot of the time the Funeral Director will talk with your family, if they are still around when we arrive, to get an idea of what will be done with your remains as far as will you be embalmed, or a direct cremation? 

On the flip side of the coin is hospice care. Again it is taken care of promptly with our arrival and a brief conversation with your family to get some general information. 

If you were to die in your home, chances are that who ever finds you will first call the police. The police and EMT's will arrive and someone will assess the situation. If it looks like you died of natural causes and you will not need to be taken to the medical examiner, the police will tell your family and then they will contact the funeral home of their choosing. We will then arrive to your house and transport your body into our care. (I have yet to do a home visit, but I've heard stories, both good and bad). Generally we try to clean up the place where you died at home the best that we can before we leave. 

If you died at home and it warranted an investigation, then your body would be taken to the medical examiner's office and an autopsy would be performed. This process can take a few days for all of the lab work to be done but once your remains were ready; the funeral home would be notified and then we would go and transfer your body into our care. 

There are some situations in that, even if you died of natural causes, your body must still be transported to the medical examiner's office. Remember that paperwork I was talking about? If that little 'Yes' box is check by the "Do these remains need to be further examined by the local coroner/medical  examiner" then we will transport you to the local M.E. to get examined. Case in point the first removal I worked on, the elderly gentleman who died in hospice had to be taken to the M.E. because he had broken his hip a few days prior to his death and the fracture had to be documented. This helps protect the funeral home and its employees by documenting anything 'unusual' before it comes into our care, so that it doesn't look like we are using your loved ones as punching bags in the preparation room. 

In all situations, a funeral director will call your family to arrange a consultation. Your loved ones would arrive and begin arranging your funeral. It is as this point that I would like to take a moment and step onto my soap box. 

As a young funeral directing apprentice I implore you to sit down with your family and discuss what you would like to be done in the event you should die; regardless of how old you are. I'm looking at you 23 year olds! Do you have strong feelings about cremation or burial? Do you want a religious ceremony or a celebration of life? Do you want an open or closed casket? Are you just dying to be buried in a KISS Kasket?

Or would you rather your body was donated to a medical school, research lab, or local mortuary science program? (Notice how I didn't say donate your body to 'science', because you can't donate your body to science just like you can not donate your body to English or math). Or are you trying to better the earth and in turn would prefer an ecologically friendly 'green' burial with a visitation and service directly in your home? Whatever you decide please let your loved ones know and if you feel up for it, maybe even consider doing a prearrangement.

In the end however, your funeral, although it is the final chapter on your life story is really more for your family than it is for you. Your funeral is your family and friend's way of saying their final good-byes to your earthly remains. 

So although the thought of our inevitable demise may be terrifying, it is something that we must all encounter and endure. 

Until next time.